


Masquerade

by RedxMoonxRose



Series: Unholy Trinity [1]
Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Bound to Death, F/M, Foreknowledge, Magic, More OC Than Self-Insert, Multi, Sass, Seer, Self-Insert/OC - Freeform, Seriously OP main character, Siphoners (Vampire Diaries), Sorry Not Sorry, Tattoos, elena gilbert is a magical unicorn, this is my sandbox
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:53:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22441384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedxMoonxRose/pseuds/RedxMoonxRose
Summary: Mistake. Plague. Abomination. They were all things that she had heard time and time again over the years she had walked the Earth. They were also all things that she relished in as a villain wasn't afraid to get their hands messy to save the ones they loved and family was everything to her. All it took was a simple mask.
Series: Unholy Trinity [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1614844
Comments: 67
Kudos: 74





	1. Danzleikr Lítit Barn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: E... Because of course. 
> 
> Red back at it again with that SI/OC bullshit! Why is it when I get my writing muse back, it won’t stay in one fandom lane and will instead toss and turn between a million different ones at once? One day I’m in the _Through the Valley of Shadows_ zone and another I'm writing a story idea I originally had back when I actually used to watch _Vampire Diaries_ as it came out!
> 
> Ah well, nothing I can do! Just let it be known that this story will be updated on a slower pace than _Through the Valley of Shadows_ and _Modus Vivendi_ as those two stories are my main focus right now, even though my muse refuses to listen to reason… I’m even writing another story alongside these three. Someone stop me. Please.

****

**Masquerade**

**Chapter One**  
 **Danzleikr Lítit Barn** _  
dance little children_

* * *

**(Wednesday the 9 th of September, 2009. Sphinx Hospital, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**The** emergency room was overrun, filled with screaming children, the sound of beeping monitors, moaning, and exhausted nurses giving instructions to waiting patients. The waiting room was bursting at the seams, filled with people complaining of various ailments, and every member of the on-duty staff looked haggard and stressed as they ran about with either medication or charts in hand while attempting to do twenty other things at the same time.

Except for one, that is.

The doctor stood in the centre of the chaos, facing a wall with both hands clasped behind her white coat clad back, reading an x-ray of a gunshot victim’s shoulder as though she were looking at a work of art in a gallery. After a few moments, she picked up the nearby chart and wrote a few lines of advice down for the attending doctor to follow, then turned to face a nurse who nodded towards one of the many curtained sections of the room.

Unhurried and serene, the doctor with the piercing eyes moved through the human mess of the emergency room, almost as though she was simply not a part of the chaos, as though she existed on a completely different plane of existence to it.

Curtain after curtain was then pulled back, a polite smile gracing her lips as she stepped into the space of patient after patient, her voice the same calm and accented tone as she treated injury after injury. She was unfazed by everything that greeted her behind the curtains, from a hysterical mother who had rushed her young son in for a small paper cut on the side of his finger to the numerous patients who had come in with various vegetables and household objects misplaced in unusual cavities.

One of which she was now on a first-name basis with due to the multiple visits a year.

After several hours had passed by, during which the doctor had circled the entire emergency room what seemed like a few hundred times, she eventually disposed of the latest pair of blue latex gloves she had been wearing into one of the nearby waste bins before then making her way over to the nearest elevator so that she could finally make her other rounds, rounds she hadn’t been able to see to at all due to the rush of people that had been swarming the emergency room like ants to honey.

Giving the receptionist a smile as she passed, she then made her way into the elevator and pushed the freshly re-painted number two on the panel. The hospital had received a hefty donation some months ago that the hospital administrator had put to use redoing the entire interior. Everywhere had smelt an odd combination of stale air, bleach and paint for weeks.

At the sound of the feminine robotic voice announcing the arrival at her destination, along with the loud ding _,_ she stepped out and made her way straight to the nurse’s station. Her heeled shoes echoed throughout the corridors as they clicked across the tiled flooring, small wisps of wavy white hair bouncing free from her high bun with each step.

The only nurse on duty at the desk seemed to be Kieran, who was the newest member of the team. With his carefully messed brown curls and dark blue eyes, he had quickly become many of the patients’ favourite nurse to be tended by. She had seen many of the residents’ lingering around him when they were meant to be working as well. Dressed in his blue scrubs, Kieran leant over the desk as he shuffled through papers before the sound of her clicking heels caused him to look up.

An overly enthusiastic smile immediately crossed his lips, followed by a faint pink tint to his cheeks. “Hello, Doctor Rune! How is the ER today?”

“Good evening, Kieran,” Doctor Idonea Rune replied. “It is as hectic as ever. Many of my patients today were ones with minor injuries, although I did happen to see a few of more accident-prone regulars in again today.” She shook her head with a sigh. “Along with having to tend to William for the third time this month.”

Looking down, the nurse straightened a stack of papers before stapling them together. He coughed as his mouth twitched at the mention of Idonea’s most infamous patient. This week it had been a glass bottle William had misplaced, whilst last week it had been an Iron Man action figure. The break room always had a good chuckle over the details. After clearing his throat to stop himself from laughing, Kieran refocused his attention back on her.

“Have you heard the news?”

“What news would that be?”

“We have a new intern.”

Idonea hummed. “How interesting, I had not heard. Do you know who it is?”

The last intern Sphinx Hospital had had, back in June, had been discovered stealing bags of blood from the blood bank refrigerators. After a lengthy investigation, it had turned out that she had been stealing the blood bags so that she could sell them on the side for a bit of extra cash. She had been swiftly removed from the hospital and barred from others.

No-one had mentioned to Idonea that they would be receiving any anytime soon, as she tended to be one of the doctors that interns usually shadowed more often than others. But, trust for it to be the young nurse that was the first to let her know, for the boy seemed to always have an ear out for the latest hospital gossip that he could then relay to others. That, and as her other co-workers had been so quick and amused to inform her shortly after he had joined the team, he had a mild crush on her.

As if the accelerated heart rate hadn’t already told her that.

Kieran shrugged as he leafed through another pile of papers. “A member of one of the founding families that just graduated from a big Ivy League university.” He then paused; forehead scrunched into wrinkles as he thought. “Ah! Meredith, that was it. Meredith Fell.”

“I see.”

The name was familiar in two ways. Idonea could recall the exact moment that she had first heard it and the first moment she had ever laid eyes on Meredith Fell. Fell had worked several weekends at the clinic Idonea had interned at a few years back now. She hadn’t seen much of her even then, however, as she had had so much else going on.

The first time she had ever heard the name Meredith Fell, however, had been a lifetime ago, when she had been a completely different person. In body and mind. Quite literally. Idonea briefly debated what she wanted to do with the young founding family member, before concluding that there was no need to do anything for a while at least. There were other more pressing matters that she needed to set into motion beforehand.

She’d have someone keep an eye on her, anyhow, just in case something changed.

“Has anyone been in to see my latest patient today?”

Kieran chewed on his bottom lip as he scanned through the digital visitation log for the day. The hospital administrators had decided away with the books some months ago as some of the nurses had gotten into the habit of forgetting to transfer them over to the computer systems at the end of the day.

“The one that was brought in last night for severe bleeding? Her brother checked in about half an hour ago, but he’s the only one.”

Idonea nodded. She had been expecting as much. The mother had been called as soon as she had been rushed in the previous night, but so far there had been no word back. She had heard rumours that the mother had run off with her latest new boyfriend, leaving her children to fend for themselves, so the young doctor wasn’t expecting to hear much at all or to see any visitors other than the brother.

Thanking Kieran for his assistance, which turned him a bright pink as blood pooled in his cheeks, Idonea continued her way through the corridors. She passed a few other on-duty doctors and nurses here and there, as well as other visitors, all of which she smiled and nodded at politely as she made her way to her patient’s room. She had always hated rude people and had always prided herself on never being like them, always striving to be polite. Some people tested her, but that was just how life went.

She arrived at her patient’s room to find her sat on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest as she stared out the nearby window. Her brother was sat in one of the chairs in the corner of the room, head tilted up to the ceiling, fast asleep. The doctor gently knocked on the wood of the door frame before entering as not to startle either of them.

“Hello Miss Donovan, how are we doing today?”

The teen glanced over her shoulder briefly, “I hurt,” then turned back to the window.

“As to be expected, considering what happened,” Idonea replied with a smile. “The painkillers will help.”

“Don’t you have anything stronger?”

“Nothing that I can give you, I am afraid.”

Vicki huffed before rubbing at the bandages that wrapped around her neck, covering the bite marks that marred her skin. Idonea followed the movement for a moment before then turning towards the bedside monitor to go over her patient’s vitals and check on the IV bag, which looked as though it had been recently changed. Vicki had lost a lot of blood, of course, and she had needed multiple blood transfusions throughout the night.

Idonea peered out of the corner of her eye as she examined her patient’s appearance. The colour had come back to her somewhat, returning her to a skin tone more akin to her natural light complexion, but she was still much paler than what she was normally. Her lips were no longer blue, however, so Idonea expected her to make a full recovery soon enough.

“Can’t I get something to drink?” Vicki then whined. “My throat is scratchy.”

“I’ll get you a drink, Vick.”

Idonea glanced over her shoulder to find that the brother had awoken sometime during her observation of her patient. She smiled at him politely as he left the room to hunt down one of the few vending machines in the hospital, all of which were scattered sparingly throughout the first floor. The administration had been meaning to get more so that patients didn’t have to travel so far, but no-one had managed to get around to it just yet.

“Is there anything that I can do for you?”

“Another pillow? This one is hurting my neck.”

“I can do that,” she replied with another smile.

Idonea then went back through the corridors as she made her way to one of the nearby stock rooms on the floor, which was relatively close to the nurse’s station. She entered the room, flicked the light switch on and looked over the shelving units for a few moments. She eventually found a couple of extra pillows that had been shoved at the back of one of the shelves, hidden by a few plastic containers. Pillows at the hospital seemed to disappear as regularly as the blood pressure cuffs.

Grabbing a somewhat plump one, Idonea tucked it under her arm as she retraced her steps back to Vicki’s room.

Once she arrived, however, she was greeted by the sight of Vicki laying down in the bed with a man hovering above her. Everything he said, Vicki repeated it back in monotone. Idonea watched the pair for a moment, watching as the compulsion began its weak hold on the girl before the young vampire was then flung across the room and pinned to the wall. The door closed with a faint click as it was sealed. All of this happened without Idonea taking her eyes off of her patient, without her moving an inch and without her saying a word.

Vicki blinked once, twice, and then her eyes went cloudy as she stared into space.

“You know, I do not take kindly to others compelling my patients.” She tilted her head to look towards the vegetarian vampire, who’s eyes were wide as he struggled to free himself from her telekinetic hold. Not that it would do him much good, considering just how weak his diet and age made him, along with how much power she herself had at her disposal. The youngest Salvatore had no idea just what he had stepped into when he had tried to swoop in to clean up his brother’s mess.

Moving towards the bed, Idonea placed the pillow behind Vicki before then turning towards the struggling vampire. She raised a hand to caress the side of his face, taking in his strong bone structure and deep green eyes. He was easy on the eyes, she’d give him that, but Idonea had always had a thing for pretty boys, even long before Idonea had been her name. He was far too broody for her tastes, however; she preferred bad boys. A shame really. She traced a finger across his skin, watching as her manicured nail left a thin, bloody line in its wake. 

Idonea was so very tempted to remove the spell that had been placed on the male doppelgänger, but considering that it worked in her favour, she ignored it.

Stefan’s expression twisted into one of pain as a red hue began to glow beneath the hand pressed against his face. The doctor smiled, her carefully tailored person suit slipping ever so slightly to reveal the monster that lurked beneath as the familiar rush of power and control flowed through her veins, and she basked in its intoxicating radiance. Then she uttered the words to a spell in a long-dead language and the magic she had siphoned from Stefan’s vampiric nature seeped into the talisman around her neck, hidden underneath her work clothes.

It was far easier to keep a hold of foreign magic inside of her talisman than in herself.

Idonea then looked into Stefan’s eyes, where she could see her own reflected back at her and for a moment, she saw dark brown instead of an odd blend of the light shades of teal and seafoam green.

“Your meddling has interfered with my plans, Stefan.” Idonea sighed. “Rather than kill you, however, I think I’ll make use of you. You will keep me informed on anything that has to do with Elena Gilbert or anything strange that happens in town, immediately, but never remember doing so. You will do exactly as I say when I say it. You will not act against me. You will protect Elena, and you will forget ever seeing me here or that any of this happened. You came here, compelled Vicki Donovan, and then left.”

Stefan parroted everything back to her in a monotone, and once she released him from her compulsion and removed the spell on the door, he flashed away down the hall. Idonea sighed again as she brushed non-existent lint from her coat before then turning towards her patient, who was frozen like a statue as she stared blankly at a spot on the blank walls. The doctor wondered briefly what it was that the young girl saw in the illusions she had cast, before then shaking her head with a sigh.

“It is unfortunate, really,” Idonea said. “I had seen this going a much different way.”

The illusion spell was then removed and Vicki rapidly blinked as she came back into herself.

“Doc? What happened? I—”

She shook her head, her hand coming up to rub at her face.

Idonea moved around the room so that she was stood beside the bed. Vicki turned to face her, and the doctor smiled as green and green connected. It was a shame really, as she had had plans for the young Donovan, but she had never planned on her living. She was far too rude and unuseful for that. Idonea could tolerate rude if the person was also useful to her. Still, she couldn’t risk the possibility that the troublesome Salvatore brothers managed to get the young girl turned, as her death would then plant her on the other side.

Granted, she could make it so that the girl simply left town, but she had never been one for loose ends.

“When you return home, I want you to take every single pill you have, along with the ones I give you. You will not stop until you have consumed every single one of them. Once done, you will then go into your bedroom, lock the door, and go to sleep. Nod if you understand this.”

Vicki nodded; her pupils blown wide under the influence of Idonea’s compulsion. The doctor then placed a small orange bottle in her hand and Vicki’s fingers automatically wrapped around them, her face blank and her motions robotic.

“You will remember that you had pursued Jeremy Gilbert into giving you this bottle if asked, but you will not remember this conversation. Now, I want you to turn around, tuck the bottle under your pillow and go to sleep.”

Then the teen did exactly that. She turned around and settled into the bed, tucking her arm under her pillow with the pill bottle still in her grasp. Idonea, herself, didn’t move until it had become clear that Vicki had fallen asleep as her breathing slowed to a rhythmic pattern.

She then turned around and left the room.

The name on the label of the pill bottle underneath Vicki’s pillow read _‘Elena Gilbert’._ Idonea thought it fitting, considering that the doppelgänger had been the cause of her death. Indirectly or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone, meet the puppet master of Mystic Falls! Idonea is vastly different from many of my other characters and I wanted to have fun with her. I’ve taken a few personality traits from some of my favourite characters and tweaked them into Idonea’s. The person suit was, of course, a nod to _Hannibal._
> 
> I also made a few changes to Mystic Falls Hospital, which is now Sphinx Hospital, and am basing it sort of on Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital from _House._
> 
> I’m also expanding on what I think siphoners could be. I loved Kai’s character, and I think siphoners could have been so much more than what the show ended up with.


	2. Neinn Hvíla Inn Vándr

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the first two seasons, expect a lot of jumping about. I’m only going to write an episode if Idonea changes something major in it. There’s no point in cutting and pasting episodes if nothing is different in them and people can simply go and watch that episode.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Two**  
 **Neinn Hvíla Inn Vándr  
** _no rest (for) the wicked_

* * *

**(Thursday the 10 th of September, 2009. Town Square, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**A** trail of light slowly streaked the sky, white against dark blue. The buttery illumination from numerous lit candles led the way to the town square, where almost everyone there had their faces upturned to watch the small, icy rock as it made its journey passed the earth for the first time in a hundred and forty-five years.

Considering that the last time the comet had been overhead had been when twenty-six vampires were sealed underneath Fell’s Church, the night had proved itself rather uneventful thus far. Idonea shook her head as she remembered just how slow the beginning of the second story had been and how easily she could deal with the problems that arose in a single night. But, then again, that way of dealing with things was simply no fun, and she was patient, she could wait a little bit longer before her plans came into fruition.

Vicki Donovan would soon be dead, perfectly human in her bed, and for now, that was enough for the doctor.

Her attention then immediately shifted as someone brushed past her and she watched as a familiar brunette disappeared into the crowd. Little vampire Annie had finally arrived in town, just in time to watch the comet herself. Idonea then tilted her head to the side as a sudden thought came to her, as she recalled events to pass.

It would be rather beneficial to her plans if she had the younger vampire take the youngest Gilbert out of the picture completely.

She distinctly remembered the boy’s wiliness to become a vampire after she had been killed, his wiliness when Vicki had been killed. Of course, she had changed that course of events now, but it was easy enough to fix. It would most definitely be beneficial to her plans if he turned, as a vampire couldn’t then become a vampire hunter afterwards, not in the magical sense of the word anyhow. All Idonea had to make sure of was that the young boy actually died from an overdose this time around.

Idonea smiled. There was no need for her to interfere with the little vampire’s plans otherwise.

She had no plans herself of allowing the latest female doppelgänger to become a vampire in the first place, but it was always good to have backup plans… and backups for those backups. Jeremy Gilbert was simply collateral damage in the doctor’s plans, but Idonea had never liked the existence of hunters in the first place. Any of the five she managed to come across in her travels were soon killed off by whatever unlucky unfortunate she had compelled, as she had no intention of inflicting that particular curse on herself. 

She had lived for far too long to simply make one plan and hope that it was carried out perfectly—she had made that fatal mistake before and bitterly suffered the consequences for it.

“Doctor Rune!”

She blinked before then turning towards the voice, where she was greeted with the same face that Idonea had seen printed on a thousand other girls—a bit of an over-exaggeration, but it certainly felt that way to her—and one that she hated no matter who it was on. It was simply too problematic a world when doppelgängers were involved. 

Elena Gilbert moved through the crowd until she was stood in front of the doctor, the same warm smile on her face. Idonea immediately noticed the flush of red that spread across light olive skin which told her exactly how the young Gilbert girl was feeling in that moment, as she had been the one to compel her into feeling that way so many years ago now.

“Good evening, Elena,” she replied. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been good.” Elena smiled, cupping her unlit candle with both hands and Idonea offered her the flame of her own, arching an eyebrow at her as she did to show she didn’t quite believe that answer. “Well, I mean I’ve been more tired and a little dizzier lately, but I did miss my appointment so it’s my own fault, but otherwise I’ve been good.”

Idonea hummed in response. “I can schedule another appointment for you sometime this week if you feel as though you need.”

“Please,” she laughed. “Aunt Jenna worries enough without me getting worse.”

“Your condition can be quite dangerous if left unchecked.” The teen sighed at this reply and Idonea offered her another smile. “Do you require any more hydroxycarbamide?”

Elena bit her lip. “I don’t think they’re working. I just feel worse afterwards.”

“Worse in what way?” Idonea asked, concern written across her face. She did have appearances to uphold, after all, and the doppelgänger’s safety was one of her top priorities despite how much she disliked the child. It was mostly left-over feelings from other women with the same face, but Elena would one day do many things that annoyed the doctor. 

“I’ve been sick a few times after, but water usually helps with that and…” Elena paused before her voice dropped to a whisper. “I haven’t had my period since I’ve been taking them.”

“It is a known side effect but one that is usually temporary, however, if it continues, please phone to let me know.”

Elena nodded, before then seeming to catch something of interest over the doctor’s shoulders. Idonea turned around to see what it was and was immediately greeted by the sight of the vegetarian vampire who had taken to compelling one of her former patients. From the look in his eyes, he had clearly heard the conversation and was now worried over what dangerous condition Elena seemingly had. Idonea had never quite understood the allure that followed doppelgängers where everyone seemed to fall so madly in love with them so quickly…

 _‘Oh, well.’_ She thought. _‘He can protect the unicorn for a while.’_

“I will leave you to mingle now, but please do come in during the week to see me, Elena,” Idonea said, bringing the girl’s attention back to her. “Doctor’s orders.”

She watched as Elena’s eyes dilated momentarily before she then nodded with a smile. “Of course, Doctor Rune.”

Idonea stepped away and watched briefly as Stefan finally made to move towards the younger girl. That was another thing that she had never quite gotten her head around. The age gaps. She just couldn’t understand how a vampire who had been alive for more than a hundred years could fall for what accounted to a child in her eyes, much less sleep with them. She had problems with that. Even someone like Idonea had lines that she would never cross and humans under the legal limit were one of those lines.

In terms of feeding and using for pleasure, at least, as she had no such problems with orchestrating their deaths.

Blowing out her candle, Idonea dropped it into one of the nearby bins as she made her way towards the one decent bar that Mystic Falls had to its name. While Idonea had developed a taste for the more expensive things in life over the years, the Mystic Grill did have a certain charm to it that appealed to her old self. And it was a hotbed of drama and gossip.

The bell on the top of the door dinged when she stepped over the threshold, her light eyes taking everything in, carefully. Her gaze then landed on the bar, watching one specific person avidly. The oldest Salvatore brother sat at the bar, nursing a drink, his dark hair in casual disarray.

“I know you.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and sigh deeply as Vicki Donovan appeared from the bathrooms, clearly high judging by the bloodshot and watery eyes. Maybe she should have been more specific and told the girl that she had to return home immediately after being released that very same morning. Oh, well, it would all still work out just fine. Damon wouldn’t sink his teeth into her a second time for a few days at least and by then Idonea’s compulsion would have taken hold and the young girl would have been dead already.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.”

Idonea looked up from beneath long, thick eyelashes as she gave Damon a blatant once over and idly decided that she would very much like to get her hands on what lay underneath the many layers of black. The oldest Salvatore was very much more her type, after all. Besides, she still needed to compel him as well, just so that the unicorn had two little protectors.

Her tall heels clicked against the timber flooring, as she strode confidently towards the bar.

“Miss Donovan.”

The girl startled and almost stumbled as she spun around. “Doc, hi!”

Damon glanced over his shoulder, his icy blue eyes looking her up and down, lingering on her exposed thighs. It wasn’t as though the oversized t-shirt she had chosen to wear that day did much to cover her up as it fell short just above her knees. She brushed a few loose strands of white from her face, and his attention fixated on the bohemian style rings she wore with their gemstones and patterns before travelling up her left and right arms as he studied the black and white sleeves that covered the length of them.

The viper snake that slithered down her right tricep before then coiling around and through the skull of a wolf. The sprigs of gladiolus and amaryllis that overlapped the skull slightly, tied around a quartz crystal behind which was a waxing crescent moon. The sleeve was then completed with a ram’s skull, its horns reaching up to frame the sides of the tattoos, a pentagram imprinted on the centre of its skull.

A cloaked, half-skeleton half-woman looked down at a large floating scrying bowl filled with water on her left, where a moth was perched on one side of the bowl and another flew above it at an angle. The figure herself held a flesh hand palm upward with a runic mannaz coin flipped into the air and a skeletal hand down by her side, holding a half-eaten apple. Vines and thorns that dug into the skin and dripped blood covered the majority of the background; some twisted into an infinity symbol with the handle of a sword tightly wrapped within behind the woman. A cluster of delphiniums enclosed the top left corner of the sleeve and a cluster of hibiscuses enclosed the bottom right.

“I believe it would be best for your health if you head home and rest. You are looking quite… flushed.”

Vicki’s eyes flickered back over to Damon as she chewed a lip before she then nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I should do that. See you around, doc.”

Idonea sighed as she ran her fingers through the centre of her hair, shaking the strands about as she did. She then gestured the bartender for bourbon as she leant up against the bar’s counter, positioning herself in such a way that caused her t-shirt to hike up even more to expose the lower half of her body. She did enjoy flaunting the gifts she had been given.

“Here you go.” The bartender said before she then turned around to tend to another customer further down the bar.

She swirled the glass around and watched as the two ice cubes within hit against each other for a moment, before then downing the entire drink in one go, swallowing the two ice cubes along with the alcohol. Prolonged exposure to doppelgängers always did tend to grind on Idonea’s every nerve. She waved the bartender down again.

“I’m impressed.”

“My mission in life,” she replied with a coy smile as she turned to face the younger vampire. “I do not believe I have seen you around town before.”

“How rude of me.” He offered her his hand. “Damon. Damon Salvatore.”

She shook it briefly, her fingertips deliberately brushing across the palm of his hand. “Idonea Rune,” she then added with a wink, “M.D.”

Damon eyed her curiously, his eyebrows raised. “I’m further impressed. Now that wouldn’t be the Rune founding family, would it?”

“The one and only.”

He hummed in thought before then smirking deviously. “Can’t say that I’ve seen a lot of doctors that look _nearly_ as good as you.”

Idonea laughed as she met his smirk with her own. “You should really try a little harder if you wish to seduce me into your bed.”

He threw back the last of his bourbon, stood and then offered her his hand. Idonea left it lingering for a few short moments before she placed her hand in his and allowed him to lead her out of the bar and towards his car. It really was a beautiful thing, his blue chevy camaro, and it didn’t take them long at all to reach the Salvatore boarding house.

The moment the door closed behind them, his mouth was on hers and she was backed into the wall behind her. His hands framed her face as he pulled back slightly and locked his baby blues with her seafoam green. “I don’t want you to scream, okay?” He said lowly as his pupils dilated as he tried to compel her. Tried being the operative word.

Idonea laughed. “I think you are overestimating your sexual prowess.”

The older Salvatore blinked owlishly for a second as the doctor leant forward to nip at his bottom lip, her eyes still on the vampire who easily fell to her own compulsion.

“You will remember me as a young vampire you met a little over five years ago. We had so much fun together that you would eventually come to see me as a close friend, close enough to trust with your secrets. I offered to help you get Katherine back as I have lived in Mystic Falls for many years and know the people.”

She paused for a moment before then continuing onto other matters of compulsion, what she had originally wanted to do to him. “You will keep me informed on anything that has to do with Elena Gilbert or anything strange that happens in town, immediately, but never remember doing so. You will do exactly as I say when I say it. You will not act against me. You will protect Elena and forget that this compulsion happened. All you remember is the burning desire you have to bed me.”

After a moment Damon then jerked forward and captured her lips in a bruising kiss, animalistically, as he tried to dominate her. His fingers dug into the flesh of her thighs as he picked her up and pressed her into the wall. His hips fit snugly in between her thighs and she wrapped her legs around his arse, tugging him closer to her. A bulge pressed into her and she grinned into the kiss, fingers painfully pulling at his hair as she coaxed him into being rougher with her.

Teeth shredded skin and Idonea licked the blood that dripped from Damon’s lip. His eyes were blown wide with arousal and she could see that they were in for quite the long night. She almost wanted to keep him her little pet forever, to see how he enjoyed it when the tables were turned and his control was taken away, but she had other plans.

Such a shame.

She’d keep him for a little while, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Caroline compulsion here! There was definitely no consent on her part for much of what Damon did to her and Idonea is deeply against that sort of thing. So many of my characters have tattoos, my witches being the ones with the most. I just love tattoos and the stories behind them. I wonder if anyone can figure out the meaning of Idonea’s.


	3. Ráð Framar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Vampire Diaries_ does seem to have a lot of parties… The update schedule for this story is now simply whenever I choose. Both _Modus Vivendi_ and _Through the Valley of Shadows_ are once a month, twice if I’ve written a lot. This story, however, is written whenever I have a break and can’t write anything else for the other two. 
> 
> I hope people are enjoying this story and Idonea, however.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Three**   
**Ráð Framar  
** _plan ahead_

* * *

**(Thursday the 24 th of September, 2009. Lockwood Mansion, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**Fingers** brushing across the very edge of the table, Idonea slowly drifted around the heritage room that exhibited the founding families’ memorabilia as she carefully examined all the antiques in the off chance that something of worth caught her eye. She read up on the information about each of the pieces and which family they had been donated by. Guns, jewellery, woodworking, paintings—the list went on and on. Each item held a kernel of history and Idonea had always loved history and the knowledge that came with it.

She took a sip from the champagne in her hand as she examined the registry from the first-ever founders’ party that was hung on the wall. There were many familiar names written on the aged paper but Idonea smiled at the sight of the names Vilde and Oda Rune—the firecrackers she had sent to Mystic Falls in the eighteen sixties. They had been young and human at the time, eager to prove their worth to her in the hopes that she would then find them worthy of being added to the very short list of sired she had to her name.

The doctor could count how many vampires she had personally sired on two hands.

Nowadays the firecrackers were running about unearthing ancient artefacts and other such objects for her, while occasionally meeting up with one of her other troublesome children Gwendolyn who had been assigned to grimoire collecting duty. She was fairly certain that the three had entered into a relationship together the last time she had heard from them.

“Doctor Rune!”

She suppressed the urge to sigh as the familiar voice of the latest female doppelgänger called across the room to her, but none the less she still turned to face Elena with a polite smile etched across her face. The redness had faded from the brunette’s complexion but that was to be expected considering that Elena had come to see her for an appointment the day after the comet. Then Idonea’s gaze moved down to Elena’s chest, where now hung around her neck was a very familiar necklace that hadn’t been there before.

The last time she had seen it, it had been around the neck of a fiery blonde. A momentary flicker of rage filled Idonea at the sight of Elena wearing it, but she took another sip of her champagne and forcibly pushed down the feeling. The heightened emotions were always something that she hated dealing with, but she prided herself on her control.

“Hello again, Elena. You are looking better.”

Elena smiled; her arm looped through Stefan’s and her body pressed to his side. The younger vampire greeted her with a small nod and Idonea gestured with her glass in response. He had a look in his eyes that told the doctor that Elena had spilt the beans concerning her potentially fatal condition. She wondered how he had taken it, considering it revolved around his little girlfriend’s blood—the very thing he craved like a drug and denied himself of daily, the poor little neutered ripper.

“Much better, thank you.” Elena looked around for a moment. “Do you have a date, Doctor Rune?”

“There you are, babe.”

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Idonea smiled sweetly as Damon Salvatore slid into the room and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her to his side as he pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. Elena’s eyes had widened in surprise and Stefan had stiffened as though someone had rammed a steel rod up his arse.

The brother then eyed Idonea’s frame quickly, taking in all the skin that her formfitting low-cut dress showed. She almost smiled in amusement at the idea that she would allow Damon to dig his fangs into her. There was a very short list of people that she had ever allowed to drink from her, after all, and the Salvatore wasn’t close at all to making it. Not that either brother was aware of that fact, however. Stefan was under the impression that she was a naïve little human, and Damon had been compelled into thinking they shared blood.

Idonea had been the only one in their little relationship to feed upon the other.

A playful smile crossed her fake boyfriend’s lips and Stefan’s jaw clenched. “I didn’t know you knew Idonea, Elena.”

Elena blinked. “Oh, uh, yeah… Doctor Rune has been seeing me since I was a little girl. She’s practically family.”

Idonea hid her smirk in the rim of her glass as Elena turned the smile on her. It was almost pitiful how easy the Gilbert family had been played by her over the years, how easy it had been for her to insert herself into their lives. Interfering with the magic of the compass had been child’s play when it had been used to determine her nature and ever since she had gotten her hands on her first-ever vervain plant, she had taken to drinking it in her morning tea and bathing in it for hours on end until she could no longer feel the burn of the herb on her skin.

It could affect her for a second or two at most, depending on how much of it was used on her, but otherwise, she was immune to its effects.

“If you all will excuse me,” Idonea smiled. “I have business to attend to with Mrs Lockwood.”

With that, the doctor slipped from the room to leave the Salvatore brothers and the unicorn to continue on with their conversation. She quickly moved through the mansion until she came to the closest bathroom of the many it had, before then cloaking herself with the telltale spell of her maternal coven. Not that they had ever accepted her nor ever would. She was an abomination in their eyes, one they wished erased from existence.

She would have been hurt if she had actually cared for them in the first place.

Her paternal coven was a different situation entirely, but Idonea had had very few dealings with them over the years since their interests tended to collide with each other.

Idonea then silently moved back through the mansion, slipping past the many people that walked the corridors. She knew instantly where she needed to go, having already learnt the layout from the first time she had been invited inside by a naïve Carol Lockwood. Her destination was on the first floor, a parlour that the mayor used as his office. However, she came to a stop just before the parlour, pausing in the dining room to find the youngest Bennett witch just as she had finished lighting all the unlit candles that surrounded the room.

From what Idonea could remember, the instance was one of the first times the untrained witch had ever used her magic consciously. The Bonnie in front of her was a far cry from the extremely overconfident Bonnie Bennett that she would one day grow into.

Of course, unlike others, Idonea had no problem with completely erasing the Bennett line if they proved too problematic. Outside of her family, she had never given anyone else more than one chance, one warning, and if it came down to it, she had no problem with turning the witch just so that she could feel tortured by the separation from her magic.

Idonea continued on through to the parlour, her heels clicking against the marble and then wooden flooring.

The rug situated behind a sofa in the middle of the room was extremely tacky, and she couldn’t believe that someone such as Carol Lockwood would ever allow it to set foot in her house. Questionable design tastes aside, Idonea moved around the sofa so that she could lift a corner of the rug with her heel and then telekinetically removed the wooden panelling that concealed the safe hidden in a space under the floorboards.

It was simple enough to open the door, considering how all Idonea had to do was _look_ at the lock for it to open.

A small wooden box was then opened, and an enchanted milky-coloured stone hovered from it, before then being replaced with one identical to it in every way. Except, of course, for its magical qualities. She wondered how long it would take for the scooby gang to figure out that the moonstone they would one day have was as fake as the curse of the sun and moon.

She cloaked and then pocketed the actual moonstone—pocketed dresses were a thing of beauty—before then returning everything to how it had been before she had entered the parlour. Her eidetic memory was a gift that Idonea had always cherished having, and she had been delighted to find that it had followed after her original death. She knew exactly how everything had been, down to the smallest inch as she carefully replaced the corner of the rug she had moved.

Idonea then slipped back into the dining room, leaving nothing behind that would point towards her presence inside of the parlour.

A waiter passed by with more champagne, and she grabbed two, quickly downing the first one and setting it back on his tray before he then continued on. She began to drink from the second one when a girl with a tight scarf wound around her neck passed her by in the corridor. Idonea blinked before humming into her glass as a freaked-out Elena followed after.

Interesting.

She hadn’t thought much on who Damon would use to be a lookout while he stole the Bennett talisman back, but he did seem to have a thing for teenage girls as Idonea recognised the girl as one of the ones from Elena’s year at school. Tiki, the rude one.

Idonea smiled as she made her way up to the balcony so that she could watch the scene play out in front of her. Damon’s inability to wait until after the party to eat was going to get him locked in a cell in the boarding house’s basement and considering that the young girl had been feed on by him, it was more than likely that she would be the one that freed him. Idonea had no plans on releasing himself herself, for a few days at least, considering his eating habits had brought the council back and they were all just an annoyance to her and her plans.

She would eventually let him out, of course, if the girl didn’t.

“Doesn’t he know not to play with his food?”

Idonea paused, her glass raised to her lips. Her eye then flickered over to the side as a figure moved into her peripheral vision and she smiled at the familiar sight of Violet Morgan with her arms crossed over her chest. Light brown hair fell over her shoulders in loose curls and her blue eyes had been framed by bronze. A simple purple dress had been paired with a leather jacket and Idonea quietly laughed at how uninterested the young witch was with the entire event. An event she had no doubt been forced into coming to.

“Evidently not, most vampires are the same.” She took a sip of her champagne. “How is your Bennett witch?”

Blue eyes hardened and disgust crossed Violet’s face. “She’s not my mine, but she is only now not being pathetically mundane. I still say we severe the bloodline and be done with it.”

Idonea laughed. “Would you prefer it if I switch you with one of your siblings?”

“No,” Violet sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. “I hate the entire bloodline. Snooty, overconfident witches, the lot of them.”

“I hear Victor is enjoying his.”

“Vic would screw anything with a pretty ass.” She then paused, before scrunching her nose as a thought came to her. “Vicki Donovan’s funeral is in a week.”

“I see,” Idonea replied with a smile. “Elena had mentioned the fact that Matt Donovan had unfortunately found his sister after she had overdosed.”

Violet rolled her eyes at the mention of the latest doppelgänger. The middle Morgan witch didn’t care at all for her and hated every moment she was in her company, due to being a ‘friend’ to Bonnie Bennett and Bonnie being a friend to Elena. Violet found her too bland with the only thing special about her being her blood—blood Idonea had compelled the entire Gilbert family into believing had a high concentration of red blood cells.

It was such a shame that Elena had to get near weekly venesections to counteract that problem.

“You come for the stone,” Violet said. “Does that mean your plans are finally coming to fruition?”

“Soon, my dear, there are still a few pieces left.”

A pained grunt drew Idonea’s attention and she turned her head to watch as Tiki fell to the ground, Damon not far behind her. She tilted her head to the side slightly and listened to the telltale beat of a heartbeat coming from the young girl. It seemed Damon hadn’t managed to take much blood to kill her before the vervain had weakened him enough for his brother to swoop in. An amber crystal tumbled from his grasp before the two Salvatore brothers then disappeared from sight in a blur.

“I believe that your Bennett should be given that talisman, Violet, my dear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mwhahaha… as if Idonea didn’t have plants in Mystic Falls or other places. Woman’s been alive for over a thousand years with foreknowledge about the world she is living in. She’s got plans! I’d love to hear your guys ideas on what exactly she has planned out for the storyline!


	4. Skulda-Lið Er Blóð

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, look, another party. Surprise, surprise. The plot is at least picking up a little, anyhow. Future updates are probably going to take a little longer from this point on, as I only have three more chapters written down.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Four**  
 **Skulda-Lið Er Blóð  
** _family is blood_

* * *

**(Sunday the 1 st of November, 2009. Mystic Grill, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**It** was rude to attend a birthday party without first arriving with a well thought out present for the birthday person, but considering as how Idonea hadn’t originally planned on even attending Stefan Salvatore’s hundred and sixty-second birthday celebration in the first place, her last-minute present had come from the corner music store down the road that she had never actually entered before. She had come out a minute later with a random Kanye West album that she had taken from a bin of albums situated in the middle of the store.

She detested the artist but recalled the younger vampire enjoyed listening to him.

Granted, she could have gone through her own personal collection of literature for something to give as a more thought out present, but she didn’t like Stefan nearly enough for her to warrant giving him something of her own. Besides, he was still under the impression that she was a simple, weak-minded little human that his brother was using. Not that he had actually done anything about it, after his failed attempt to desiccate his brother in the boarding house cellar nor had he ever come up to her concerning it.

Idonea would have been offended over Stefan’s lack of action concerning her supposed safety if she had been anyone else.

If she had actually liked the youngest Salvatore, she would have given him a personalised drawing instead, as drawing was one of the many hobbies she enjoyed in her free time. She only drew for people she liked, however, as drawing took time and effort as it wasn’t a thirty second done and dusted type of job.

The bell on the top of the door dinged as she stepped over the threshold, where she was then immediately greeted by the trance electronic rock that was blaring through the numerous Mystic Grills speakers. Humans were spread out across the restaurant, all joyfully swinging their bodies in ways that Idonea could never dare to call dancing. It was mere shuffling, swaying of arms and the occasional bouncing of bodies as though they were buoys bobbing in water.

Idonea hid her grimace. It was not her type of party, at all. Raves were something she enjoyed attending simply for the atmosphere and the music that consumed her very being. Balls as well. It was an odd combination of past and present her that had been blended into one mishmash over the years. The party before her, however, was very clearly a teen party.

Her attention swayed momentarily as she noted the hostess of the party moving about in her peripheral vision. Much like it had originally gone, Damon had compelled Elena’s blonde friend into planning out the party for him. Idonea had always found the girl a bit of a brown-noser and a snitch. Perhaps it was a general umbrella dislike for the entire scooby gang as there wasn’t a single of them that the doctor actually liked. There were brief moments when she thought she might, but then they would turn around and doing something else that would make her dislike them even more—she much preferred the scooby gang they had been named in reference to.

The tragic death of her father hadn’t done much to change Caroline Forbes in terms of personality, as it had happened when the girl had been but a child. From the few brief interactions Idonea had had with her, Caroline didn’t remember her father at all. The death had changed her ever so slightly, but she was still much the same as she had been.

Idonea then tilted her head to the side as Damon appeared from the crowd of people before he then drew the blonde into a conversation with him. She found it highly amusing that the young vampire had never figured out that talismans were extremely particular about who touched them. Her own talisman would shock him if he ever touched it as well. Not that he had ever actually seen her talisman, considering as how she always had it cloaked from sight whenever she wore it.

The rare black nuummite crystal with its rivulets of purple that hung around her neck from the bone of a raven’s claw and rested hidden in the valley of her breasts was the one thing that remained from her human life and Idonea had more standards about who touched it than she did about the men that she let into her bed.

The sight of Stefan awkwardly dancing with a blonde then drew the doctor’s attention. She raised a single perfectly arched and thick eyebrow as she watched the pair and sensed the familiarity of her own blood and the blood of one of her children rushing through Lexi’s veins, along with the undertones of death she could sense on all vampires. The blonde was the only reason Idonea had decided to attend the party in the end, at first perfectly happy to let the original story play out as it was intended too. And then she had seen the young Lexi’s turning for herself and realised just who she belonged to. Her son had never informed her that he had turned the girl, as was the rules of their family.

Damon wouldn’t be allowed to have her killed, regardless. Idonea was very protective towards her sireline, after all, and all her children were very particular about who they themselves turned. There were no mistakes or random sirings like so many others.

Her heels clicked against the timber flooring as she made her way towards the pair.

“Hello, Stefan.”

The pair turned towards her almost instantaneously. Stefan had a look of bewildered concern etched across his face at her sudden appearance while the blonde raised an eyebrow as she gave the doctor a once over. Her hair had been twisted in an effortless braid with wisps of white strands escaping its confines to frame her face and a short baby blue spaghetti strap dress hugged her form all the way down to her lower thighs.

It was unusual that a vampire sired into her sireline didn’t, in turn, know who she was.

Her son had broken a number of their family’s rules when he had turned the young Alexia Branson, it seemed. Idonea had never been informed of it and Lexi had never learnt her place in their family. At least, however, the doctor knew how her granddaughter lived. That, at least, she could approve of even if she didn’t agree with it herself. Regardless, she needed to learn her place in their family and immediately, as the doctor already knew of one person, she had turned that she herself had never approved of.

“Idonea, hi.”

She smiled sweetly as she extended her arm outwards the younger vampire, the present she had bought for him held loosely in her grasp.

“Damon told me that you would enjoy this.”

Stefan’s jaw locked momentarily at the mention of his brother, but he still took the album from her, an amused smile on his lips as he took in the atrocious wrapping paper and sparkling ribbon Idonea had wrapped the present in. She did have naïve appearances to uphold, after all, and she had been highly amused with herself at the time.

“Thank you.” He then looked around the room briefly. “Do you know where my brother is?”

“I saw him over by the door leading out into the alley a few moments ago.”

With a nod, Stefan excused himself. Idonea watched him until he had left the Mystic Grill before her gaze then moved across to the blonde before her. There was no familiarity in her eyes, no recognition of who the doctor was. She would most definitely be having words with her child. She held a hand out. “Hello, I am Idonea. Damon’s girlfriend.”

“Lexi, Stefan’s oldest, bestest and prettiest friend.”

“Really?” Idonea asked with mock curiosity across her face. “How long is oldest, if you do not mind me asking?”

Lexi looked at her, hazel-green eyes fluttering across the features of her face. Idonea smiled again and faked a conscious shuffle of her feet, as though she was embarrassed by the question, embarrassed by the observation—where in truth, Idonea enjoyed being looked at as no-one ever did Before, at least without malicious intent.

“Are you English?”

Idonea blinked at the change of conversation, at the deflection of her question. It was a pet peeve of hers when people did that. “I learnt English in England, thus the accent, but no.” Her accent shifted from smooth, cultured British to seductive, refined Icelandic. “Ég er ekki enskur.”

“That would explain the runes,” Lexi replied, pointing to Idonea’s exposed collarbones, where across both of her clavicles were vibrant Elder Futhark runes. ᚨᛚᚹᚨᛃᛋ · ᚨᚾᛞ · ᚠᛟᚱᛖᚹᛖᚱ and ᚠᚨᛗᛁᛚᛃ · ᚨᛒᛟᚹᛖ · ᚨᛚᛚ. They had been the very first tattoos the doctor had ever gotten done. A permanent mark of her vows etched across her skin for all to see.

“Family motto,” she smiled. “Did Rowan never teach it to you?”

Lexi froze. Her body stiffened and her eyes widened. Idonea’s smile turned from sweetly innocent to sly. Her left arm shot out and her fingers wrapped around Lexi’s arm, holding her in place as a red hue began to glow on her skin. Pain crossed the blonde’s face as she fought the originator of her sireline without letting any humans notice the confrontation. Idonea slowly drained Lexi’s vampirism little by little, just enough for it to hurt but not nearly enough to endanger her.

The intoxicating radiance of her own magic entwined with the magic of Lexi’s blood just furthermore proved the young vampire’s place in her sireline.

“Stop struggling,” she then ordered. The blonde did exactly that and the fear in her eyes grew. “I am protective of my sireline, but if anyone steps out of place, I have no problem putting any of them down. I am the reason you live, and I can take it away just as easily. Now, then…”

Idonea tilted her head to the side slightly as she listened out for either of the Salvatore brothers. It seemed they were arguing outside the Grill and Damon had yet to attack the couple. Interesting. She turned her attention back to her grandchild—as sirelines were _family,_ even if other vampires didn’t see them that way.

“You will go straight to Rowan in New Orleans without stopping along the way and you will learn your place in this family. You will not leave until Rowan tells you that you can. You will listen to what he tells you, do exactly as he tells you, until the moment that he tells you that you are done. Nod if you understand.”

Lexi nodded.

Idonea smiled. “Good. Now, forget that we had this conversation and leave immediately.”

The blonde disappeared in a flourish of vampiric speed. The doctor pulled a slick phone from the pocket of her black cropped leather jacket and fired away a text message to her middle child. After it was sent, the phone was returned to her pocket and Idonea headed towards the bar. Children were so troublesome when they stepped out of line. Rowan would have to be punished for disobeying her rules but Idonea had no intention of going to him nor have him come to her, as he still had important orders to carry out.

One of the others would simply have to do it in her place.

It was disappointing, really, considering that Rowan had never disobeyed her before. He was her good child, after all. Although, it could have been worse. One of her children could have sired the Salvatore brothers and Idonea refused to have vampires like them taint her blood. She could use the latter for her own pleasure, but that was he was good for.

Idonea toyed with his mind and his feelings like a cat with a mouse because it amused her. She had him in her bed because he was her type attractively and he was easy. The doctor had needs, after all, and Damon Salvatore was only too happy to fulfil them for her. Once either of the Salvatore brothers ran out of use, however, she would rip out their hearts and feed them to each other. And if they ever crossed her, or her family, which was a likely scenario all things considering, she would make them wish they had never been born.

Now then…

Damon required another vampire for his little plan, and it appeared as though somewhat orphan Annie had already begun to turn her little monkey minions for her own plan of retrieving her mother from the tomb. Idonea smiled slyly as a familiar young male bartender brought her a glass of whiskey on the rocks with a flirtatious grin.

Benjamin McKittrick.

He would do just nicely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another character confirmed to be dead before their original story death? Idonea has been busy! I’d love to hear about everyone’s theories about deaths Idonea has changed, caused or even prevented. I don’t speak Icelandic, so if any of this is wrong, please let me know. You know how Google translate is… We also see a bit about Idonea’s sireline. I’ve been basing it on the way that _True Blood_ runs with, that they are family and that she can detect when someone is of her blood. 
> 
> For some reason, I’ve been imaging her talisman looks like the dark crystal from the series of the same name…
> 
>  **Icelandic**  
>  Ég er ekki enskur : I am not English


	5. Taka Af Dauði

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I can’t wait until season 1 is done with and I can finally get to the real Original action. Then the timeline is going to get messed up because of changes and things Idonea has either already done or plans too.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Five**  
 **Taka Af Dauði  
** _touch of death_

* * *

**(Saturday the 12 th of December, 2009. Idonea’s Den, Villa Vittoriosa, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**Nursing** a glass of scotch in one hand, Idonea idly flipped through the pages of the newest grimoire to be added to her collection with the other as she laid relaxed across her chaise lounge chair. The pungent, lavender-like, aromatic scent of rosemary filled the den from the numerous scented candles that had been spread out across the large, mezzanine styled room that was Idonea’s den—despite the fact that the immense size of the room far surpassed what one would usually class as a den.

There wasn’t much at all in terms of new information in any of the new grimoires. Every new page contained a spell or ritual already known to her. It was a shame as she had been hoping for something new, but none the less, it was still a new addition to her vast collection.

Idonea released her hold on the grimoire and watched as it floated up to the second floor of the room, where it was then slotted into one of the ceiling to floor bookcases that were dedicated to the letter B, as without a known last name the first name of Bree was all Idonea knew. Many of the B bookcases were decided to grimoires stolen from the Bennett line, of course.

Dangling over the spine of many of the grimoires hung talismans that Idonea had managed to acquire. She never used them, but she enjoyed having them, as trophies of a sort.

Idonea looked over her shoulder towards the nearby end table and smiled slyly. Sat next to her half-finished bottle of scotch was the grimoire that had once belonged to the Bennett witch Emily. It was a shame that she wouldn’t be able to add the witch’s talisman to her collection, as well, but Idonea didn’t much enjoy dealing with witches that interfered with manners beyond the veil—it was bad enough that both her biological and adoptive mothers lingered on the other side, no doubt plotting her demise together.

Her adoptive father was a different matter entirely. She had never really known where she stood with him. He had never chased after her, however, so there was at least that. When everyone had been human, or as close to human as was possible, Idonea had had quite a neutral relationship with Mikael. He had tolerated her being a part of the family and she had… not killed him for abusing his children.

She had come close a few times, if she was being honest with herself, however.

She wondered how the Salvatore brothers had reacted to the note that had been sitting in their father’s coffin for the last fourteen years, in place of the grimoire they had gone to get the previous night that one of the Gilbert journals had told them would be there. The other journals that had once been hidden in the Gilbert lake house were, of course, no longer there.

It amused Idonea far too much how people would think themselves as the ones in control when it was Idonea herself behind the scenes pulling the strings. Her brother, her twin in everything but blood, would be just as amused once they were reunited. No doubt Idonea would have to paint towns red for his forgiveness, however, for leaving him behind even though the idea had been his own a few hundred years before after Idonea had been first threatened with a century-long nap.

She sighed. Family domestics were often very troublesome, especially when it came to her family, where disagreements and arguments were finished with daggers to the chest.

The sudden sound of a quick snippet of the theme song to _Sabrina the Teenage Witch_ echoing from the speakers of her phone caused Idonea to turn around. She checked the text message displayed on the touch screen and hummed in thought. The day had disappeared in a blink of an eye and it was already time for the tomb under Fell’s Church to be opened. The only reason that it was still happening, even without Emily Bennett’s grimoire, was because Bonnie had gone to Violet for help.

She had discovered the other was a witch some weeks ago now and had continued to pester her with so many questions that Violet had come to Idonea threatening to kill her. Still, the Morgan witch had helped out by giving the Bennett witches a copy of the spell that she said belonged to the Morgan family and one that was, purely because Idonea had given them a copy of the spell that Emily had written in her grimoire to keep for themselves.

It was the truth, but not the entire truth and that was usually how Violet operated.

She drummed her manicured and dark blue, almost black painted nails against the fabric of the lounge chair arm. Then, after a moment, she stood, and her heels clicked against the dark mahogany flooring as she made her way out of the room. With a simple wave of her hand, the lit candle flames were snuffed out and the large iron door sealed itself shut behind her with a loud echoing thud and click. It would not open again without her blood or through the use of another siphoner like herself. 

Idonea then made her way through the large palatial mansion she called home, the one she had painstakingly designed over the years to be just perfect. Just the main building itself had cost her a little over thirty-seven million. The inside was even more expensive, considering just what Idonea had placed inside of it. Priceless paintings, books, the works.

Mystic Falls had always been her home, even before it had been called such. She refused to be moved or chased away by little children who acted too big for their boots or by self-important witches who thought they could blackmail her or her family.

The doctor had been around for a long time now and with age came power, power she knew how to use to get what she wanted. There was a reason that she was known as the Mother of Nightmares in the supernatural community, after all, and it wasn’t for her award-winning personality.

After travelling down multiple flights of stairs and into the second floor of the basement, she then headed into the large garage that sat underneath the house. Numerous beautiful cars and motorcycles of all different makes and colours were spread out across the large room, another one of Idonea’s many, many collections. Not that all the vehicles had been brought for her, as her family needed nice things to drive when they were all finally reunited once again.

She threw her leg over the back of her brand-new, slick black Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R and peeled out of the garage before then heading down the streets towards where Fell’s Church once stood. She had always found it fascinating how the two towns in the stories centring around Elena Gilbert had merged into what was now known as Mystic Falls. The landscape and buildings in Mystic Falls had been changed, mixed with different building styles of Victorian, Queen Anne and more.

It made it a more interesting place, in Idonea’s eyes.

However, from what she could gather, that was all that had come across from the first story. Everything else remained the same from the second story so she hadn’t been able to figure out just why the two stories had merged in such a way. It almost made no sense. There was no reason for it.

Idonea shook her head as she kicked down the stand of her motorcycle and swung her leg over the back as she stood. There were no magical ley lines running through the earth beneath her feet. Magical hotspots were where one drew power. She was glad for that, at least, as there were only a few of those such places in Mystic Falls. The cemetery being one.

Unfamiliar rock music played from a stereo in the woods where many teenagers were busy partying the night away. Idonea ignored it as she silently moved through the trees as she headed towards where much of the scooby gang were currently located. There was a tomb of unruly and troublesome vampires desiccated inside. She had no plans to kill them. That would happen in due time without her interference. However, she did have plans for them whilst they were lingering about in her town.

Because it _was_ her town. She owned it. Not that anyone actually knew that fact. Idonea let everyone go about their daily lives doing whatever they wanted as long as it didn’t interfere with her own plans. The Founders council had been mostly left alone, simply because they were no threat to her safety. They were just… annoying. Like, little children.

Maybe she had grown too cocky in her years, but Idonea found that nowadays she feared no one. She feared for things, like the loss of a loved one and such things like that, but she didn’t fear a person. Numerous people over the years, hunters, witches, werewolves and vampires alike had tried to put her down and failed. She brushed the attempts off and grew stronger in their wake. She refused to be the weak, pitiful mind she had once been.

“Doctor Rune? Wh-what are you doing here?” Bonnie Bennett sputtered as the doctor made her appearance at the entrance of the tomb.

Idonea said nothing as she finished her descent down the stone stairs and walked a slow circle around the ring of fire where the two Bennett witches stood. The door of the tomb had already been opened, but the spell hadn’t been brought down. Undead that had gone in couldn’t then come out. Elena, Damon and Stefan were already inside, alongside little Anna.

Bonnie had tried to ask Violet for help performing the ritual, alongside her and her grams, but the Morgan witch had refused. Weekends were for visiting her siblings, after all, and Violet had seen no point in helping preserve the life of the oldest Bennett witch a few more years as, like Idonea, she hated Bennett witches. They had made the prison worlds the Gemini coven used to trap siphoners and Eloise Morgan was the coven’s latest. Thus, why the siblings had fled from the coven so that the same fate couldn’t be forced on their baby sister. Eloise hadn’t done anything wrong but be born, which was why she was under Idonea’s protection, as were her brother and sister.

Once she had reached a certain age, Idonea would bring her into the family properly. Violet and Victor were as close as non-sired could get to the thousand-year-old heretic.

“You’ve finally come out of the shadows,” Sheila Bennett said in a sharp tone, as she watched her from the corner of her eye. The older witch had never liked Idonea, could _feel_ that she was different even though she had not yet been able to figure out just how truly different she was. Idonea smiled at the witch bound to Mother Nature.

“I heard through the grapevine that the tomb was being opened without the required talisman.” She then bent down near a torch and watched as the flame grew and grew in size. Idonea looked at them, and Bonnie gasped in shock. The odd blend of light teal and seafoam green that were her eyes glowed luminously.

“You’re a witch?” Bonnie asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

“ _She_ is not bound to Nature.”

Idonea smiled with a smirk that sent chills down the spines of the Bennett witches. “I never was. You servants of Nature are such judgmental little things. My Father is much more lenient as I have no restrictions placed over me. Father does not believe in balance as your Mother does.”

“You’re not wanted here, abomination,” Sheila spat.

The doctor ignored the older witch’s words as she stood back up and looked at the pair. While Sheila was furious and shielding her granddaughter with her own body, Bonnie herself looked both concerned and fascinated. Fear lingered in the air still, however, emanating from the older witch. Bonnie Bennett had grown up in the presence of Idonea simply by being Elena’s friend. There was misplaced trust there, much like there was for all the human members of the scooby gang.

“Does that mean Ylva is a witch too?”

Idonea paused at the mention of her daughter, the little girl she had raised and cared for since she was a year old after she had been taken from her parents when one of Idonea’s sons had found the babe. Ylva was different from Idonea’s other children, as the others were her sired, her vampiric children while Ylva was not. Still, she found it amusing that Bonnie had jumped straight to witch as while Ylva had been fascinated by the spells and such she had grown up watching Idonea perform; she had never been a witch herself.

“No. Ylva is not a witch.”

Her youngest child was most definitely not a witch, although her son was one. A son that she hadn’t seen in over a decade now but that was the course of action he had chosen for himself and one he hadn’t wanted Idonea to interfere with. Ylva was her precious daughter, her little _wolf._ She had been a little on the nose with her naming choices. Her son’s name was perfect in her eyes and she had never thought to change it from what it already was.

Idonea looked over her shoulder as the sound of frantic running drew her attention and she watched as Elena Gilbert stumbled out of the gap between the large stone door and the archway. She then staggered at the sight of Idonea, and her eyes widened.

“Doctor Rune?”

Said doctor almost rolled her eyes as Elena then turned around as she noticed that Stefan hadn’t left the tomb. Idonea watched as Stefan stood in the crack between the door and its archway as Bonnie explained to the doppelgänger what had happened and that they were going to fix it. The neutered ripper looked at Idonea in shock and she almost laughed, as the scene was all too amusing for her. All the shock over her appearance at the tomb.

She could only imagine the expressions of betrayal they would all wear once it was revealed exactly who she was and how she had been playing them all for so many years now.

“Did he find her?” she asked instead, as she was still pretending to be Damon’s fake best friend and sometimes fake girlfriend when the occasion asked for it. The reveal of her nature to one member of the scooby gang hadn’t changed that at all as it was all still apart of her grand plan as she continued to play the town like puppets on strings.

“Not yet.”

Stefan’s voice was bland as he stared at her, as he tried to puzzle her out. The naïve human persona had been washed away to reveal the somewhat real persona of the heretic she was. The rest of her was still hidden away. The original vampire. The very first siphoner in existence. Mother Nature’s little curse for her existence, which She had then spread throughout Idonea’s maternal coven as a punishment for the unnaturalness of the merge. Death had only been too amused by it when it had happened.

Stefan looked at her for a moment, before then nodding at the scooby gang as he disappeared back inside of the tomb.

Idonea turned around to face the group and watched as the Bennett witches began to chant. Sheila refused to allow Idonea to help when Bonnie had mentioned it. That suited the doctor just fine, as it would lead to one less Bennett witch and that was always a good thing in her eyes. There were very few witches bound to Nature that Idonea liked. Most things magical tended to revolve around a Bennett or two and Idonea simply found it all too annoying, thus why she had never taken to liking a single one of them.

She could smell the blood that dripped from the wrist of the doppelgänger and thought of how much of a waste it was. Elena’s eyes were wide as she paced the area, taking quick glances here and there at Idonea. She hadn’t yet said anything to the doctor, but Idonea knew it would be coming once her precious boyfriend was safe and sound.

The flames from the torches then flared violently and Idonea hid her smirk, as she felt the familiar sensation of the tendrils of Death reaching out. Sheila Bennett’s life was slowly slipping through her fingers and Idonea wondered if the older witch even knew that by the end of the night, she would be dead. She would not be welcomed by Death, but would instead be cast over to the other side, trapped like all the other witches before her who had died after the other side had been made.

She absentmindedly trailed her fingers across the half skeletal figure drawn into the skin of her left arm.

Death favoured her. 

The same couldn’t be said about the servants of Nature.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Idonea isn’t one of Nature’s little toy soldiers. She is favoured by Death! It was too perfect, who else would have the power required to reincarnate a soul? What being bound to Death means will be explored throughout the story. I’d love to hear theories, however.
> 
> I’m imagining Villa Vittoriosa as a mixture of the house that Klaus built in Mystic Falls and a few celebrity mansions if anyone wants a better understanding of how it looks. To Idonea, the first story is the books while the second story is the tv show, etc, etc. Why have I done that? There is no reason behind it, besides a little nod of the books as I loved them before that whole deal with the ghostwriter had happened.
> 
> Who can guess who Idonea’s son and daughter are? I know her family is complicated, with her addressing her sired as her children and grandchildren, etc, but I hope that everyone still understands it. Please let me know otherwise!


	6. Húsgørð Inn Skógr

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are the pairings that everyone wishes to see in this story? I have a few already planned out but the majority are up in the wind.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Six**  
 **Húsgørð Inn Skógr  
** _house (in) the woods_

* * *

**(Saturday the 16 th of January, 2010. Samantha Gibbon’s House, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**Rain** thundered down from the skies as Damon Salvatore loudly and furiously hammered on the door of a farmhouse situated on the outskirts of Mystic Falls, surrounded by woods. Idonea stood behind him, her head tilted back to face the gloriously gloomy morning she had woken to. A small, gentle smile played on her lips as raindrops peppered her skin and soaked her clothes. Long strands of white stuck to her face, but she made no sign of moving, perfectly content in her current situation.

She had always loved the rain; the feel of it on her skin, the sound of it in her ears, the smell of petrichor produced when the rain fell on dry soil. Human or vampire, dead or alive, her love for rain had always been one of the things that had remained unchanged over the years.

Thunder clapped and flashed across the sky as the front door swung open. A few words were exchanged between Damon and the tomb vampire she knew to be Frederick before the missing Salvatore was then dragged into the hallway for all to see. A stake to the stomach soon followed and Damon’s face hardened as he rushed forward, only to be then immediately stopped by the invitation barrier that surrounded the house due to the existence of a human owner.

Idonea rolled her eyes at his thoughtlessness, as raindrops trickled down her porcelain skin. It was such a fine morning, and here she was wasting it away in the woods because Stefan Salvatore had managed to get himself abducted by vampires, the very same ones he had indirectly helped become entombed. Bambi blood was not how one made a strong vampire, no matter how much Stephenie Meyer attempted to shovel it down her throat with that terrible series the woman had made about marble skinned, sparkly no-fanged vegetarian vampires.

After the series had been first published, one of her grandchildren had gone after the writer. Thankfully, Gwendolyn had gone after her son before that had happened. There was no reason to out the entire vampire species just yet. Idonea enjoyed playing in the darkness.

She turned her attention back to Damon and thought over the fact that unless they were going up against the members of her family, the scooby gang never seemed to think through things enough to decide a planned-out course of action. If it had something to do with her family, they suddenly seemed to have plans upon plans.

The evilness of everyone else they knew, the massacre of hundreds of thousands of unknown vampires being wiped out in a single instant, all of it was ignored if it meant that one member of their gang was safe and content. Elena Gilbert could never deal with being a vampire, so the cure was sought after, and Idonea’s oldest brother and her twin, her other half, were both reduced to ash. If the doctor ever caught wind of the gang having a single thought of ill will against her family, she would kill them all without blinking an eye.

Although she wouldn’t kill Elena, however, she would make her wish that she had.

She smiled a beatific smile at one of Stefan’s captors as he shot her a suspicious and confused look. Memory wipe compulsion was so very easy for her to do, after all, and thus none of the tomb vampires remembered ever meeting her nor the orders she had whispered into their ears in the dead of the night after they had escaped the tomb. Idonea wasn’t at all concerned over the safety of Stefan, as his boyfriend and his girlfriend so obviously were, otherwise she would have compelled them not to take him in the first place.

However, the road to trust within the circle of the scooby gang was a slow-going process after her supernatural dual nature had been revealed to them all and she needed something to show that she could be trusted, thus the unchanged abduction. She never wished to compel herself that trust, as she wished for it all to be real, as it was all so much more entertaining in her mind when everything was finally exposed. Albeit, rude as manipulation was, but she had no desire to eat herself as she ate the rude.

She sighed to herself at the thought of having Hannibal Lector as a child, as she would have turned him in a heartbeat without a thought had he been real. She could only imagine all the wonderful sorts of meals they could have made together out of the people the family killed. It wasn’t as though vampire organs were much different from humans, as they all still worked much the same. The clench and release of numerous heartbeats emanating from within the farmhouse were proof enough of that when only one human was inside.

Soon enough, Damon returned to his car where awaited an impatient doppelgänger who played the damsel in distress far too often to rush carelessly and thoughtlessly into danger as she tended to do. It was one of the many reasons why Elena had always been Idonea’s latest favourite of the doppelgängers. The face she always hated; the person varied. Elena, however, was far too ignorant and had a holier-than-thou attitude towards things she had no right in interfering with, as though that because she thought herself right that meant she was.

When the Gilbert girl had been younger, a carefree little child, Idonea had often thought of stealing her away and raising her to be a different person, one that Idonea could stand. Someone that would never turn against the doctor’s family and who wanted to help in any which way. But the idea made Idonea cringe. The simple fleeting thought that she might end up caring for the girl like she had done with another like her always seemed to worm itself into her mind and the idea was cast away faster than Idonea had rid herself of her first name.

Ylva was different than Elena in so many ways. For one, the doctor had actually liked the character she had played more than not—it was simply the role she played in the third story that had made Idonea originally decide to kill her in her crib. Then she had laughed and smiled with glimmering hazel-green eyes, and the doctor had wavered in her plans.

She had not come to regret that decision ever since.

Some say that love makes people weak. Idonea was of the mind that love made a person stronger. Family was power, after all. 

Idonea stared up at the sky as Damon’s car disappeared into the distance and she rose a hand, fingertips gently brushing across the crystal that hung around her neck. Cloaked from sight for everyone bar herself. It had been the first gift she had ever received, given to her by the first person she had grown to love in this new life of hers.

She and Kol had always been described by everyone they met as two sides of the same coin. Wherever one went, the other followed. Magic had consumed both of their lives from the moment they could walk, and they had relished in the lessons that Kol’s mother had given them. Back then they had all been relatively happy, and Esther had loved Idonea as another daughter. It had all begun to crumble once she had failed to prevent Henrik’s death, and they had all been turned into vampires, however.

Kol had changed.

Gone was the boyish smile she had loved to see whenever he would perform magic, and instead was the smirk that presented itself whenever he killed someone or toyed with their lives. She had grown to love that one, as well, but her other half was still broken and there had been nothing she could do to fix it. Idonea was a Mikaelson, regardless of who had birthed her. The Mikaelsons were her family, the people who loved her and protected her from harm, her broken little family of Vikings.

Nature had taken Her magic back from the Mikaelsons after they had all been turned, but only Kol had been affected by the lost.

And for weeks now Idonea had seen the vision that she had been hoping for ever since her twin had lost a part of himself. The gleeful boyish smile on his face as his magic was returned to him even though he was still very clearly a vampire. He would have it all and Nature would not be able to touch him because he would no longer be bound to Her.

Idonea’s family were broken, but she knew the pieces that could fix them and as the oldest, she would do exactly that. It didn’t matter that she had several siblings that had been born before her, as she had lived an entire other lifetime before them. It was her mission in life to look after them all, to make them happy, and she had been doing such a terrible job of it these past few centuries as she allowed them to run in fear of their father and betray each other so many times she had stopped counting, even if she still knew that fact in her mind.

Her eyes flickered across the farmhouse and she smiled faintly at the echoes of torture emanating from within. She relished in the suffering Stefan endured. She would never accept the fact that the Ripper of Monterey was allowed happiness while her little sister, her little Bekah, lay desiccated in a coffin with a dagger in her chest because of him. If she had been there, if she hadn’t left her family, Idonea would have never allowed Stefan Salvatore to have stepped an inch in Rebekah’s direction, to have breathed the same air as her.

The same little sister that was the core reason behind all the Sphinx hospitals spread out across the globe—if a vampire Caroline Forbes had been able to carry to term and then birth twins, then Idonea could see no reason why she couldn’t make it so that her sister would have her very own children, didn’t see it as being such a farfetched idea. The research was slow going, but eventually, they would get there simply so that Idonea could see the smile that it would put on Rebekah’s face.

They had science and magic on their side, after all, and Death was always so amused by the things that Idonea did.

Her footfalls were silence as she headed towards the farmhouse. There was no logical reason for wearing high heels in the woods. She rose a hand and knocked on the door thrice. The knocks echoed through the house menacingly, and Idonea could hear as the vampires inside the basement stilled and fell silent. She could hear the groans of pain from within and she could see Stefan so clearly in her mind as he hung from the ceiling, his hands tied with vervain soaked rope and blood dripping from the wounds carved into his bare chest.

The door soon opened and Idonea was greeted by the same face that had greeted Damon.

“Hello.” She smiled, bouncing slightly on the heels of her combat boots as she clasped her hands behind her back. The very picture of naïve innocence. Frederick’s eyes flickered across the skin of her neck, and Idonea knew what he had found. The bite mark that was only slightly covered by the collar of her shirt. Damon had bitten her, but not drank from her as she had compelled him to do so that very same morning once he had told her that Stefan had been taken.

It was only too easy to prevent the healing process from erasing the mark.

“My boyfriend told me to wait outside, but it is so wet!” She laughed a laugh so similar to teenage girls she had once watched in trashy movies as she tucked a strand of wet white hair behind her ear. She had been at the tail end of teenagehood herself when she had been turned. It wasn’t hard to act that age again when the occasion arose. “I was wondering if I could come in and phone a taxi to pick me up instead?”

Frederick said nothing as he stood to the side slightly. Idonea smiled warmly at him as she stepped around and entered the home belonging to one Samantha Gibbons. It had been one of the first things she had done once she had moved to Mystic Falls, gain herself entry into every building that had an invitation barrier protecting it. It had been only too easy when no-one knew about vampires and those that did… well, being a witch also had its perks.

She faked a shiver as she rubbed her hands across bare skin in a show of warming herself up. “Thank you so much.”

“Billy, show our visitor where the phone is in the kitchen.”

Idonea followed after Billy the vampire as he led her through the house. The rest of the tomb vampires that had joined Anna’s mother were all spread out across the different rooms of the house, enjoying the many different way things had changed in the decades since they had last been able to roam around as they wished. Soon Idonea entered the kitchen, where the human owner stood cutting up food on a chopping board, with visible bite marks across the one side of her neck and her wrist.

As Idonea made her way over to the phone across the room, she heard as Billy snarled and rushed her like he was but a newborn vampire first learning to hunt. She rolled her eyes without turning around as the tomb vampire’s neck was snapped and he dropped like a puppet that had had its strings cut. Miss Gibbons blinked in surprise.

“What’s happening?”

“Nothing to worry about, Miss Gibbons,” Idonea replied as she then turned around, to meet the gaze of the compelled woman. “Now, I want you to be silent and not move.”

The doctor then placed her hands on the woman’s arms and a red hue began to glow as Idonea slowly began to siphon the compulsion that was not her own from the human’s mind. Her expression twisted into one of pain, but she made no sound like she had been ordered. Then the fear began to grow in her eyes as the compulsion was removed. Idonea smiled.

“Miss Gibbons, I want for you to quietly go outside and wait in the backseat of the silver Bentley parked there. You will not move, you will not speak, you will not contact anyone. You will not remember this compulsion, nor the fact that I am a vampire. Nod if you understand.”

She nodded, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes before Idonea then released her. The doctor watched as the woman escaped through the backdoor of her house and she listened to quiet footsteps as they made their way across the grass to the car Idonea had parked outside hours before. There was no point in killing her when she could prove herself useful. After all, Idonea had never established herself a place in the founding council aside from making a brand-new founding family so that she could do exactly that.

“Billy, what’s the holdup?!”

The doctor couldn’t believe how stupid so many young vampires allowed themselves to be. The fact that they turned off senses to prevent from being overwhelmed instead of learning how to control and use them properly. Idonea had never turned anything off, her senses nor her humanity. It was weakness in her eyes, one she had trained out of her children.

She looked over her shoulder as Jacob slowly made his way into the kitchen. As just as his feet passed over the doorway, he too had his neck snapped. Elijah had always been so proud and amused over how easily Idonea could rid herself of nuisances. He’d rip out the heart to show his power while she’d snap the neck so that no-one knew how strong she really was.

Idonea was so underestimated throughout the world, and it amused her and her family so—she was the trump card of the Mikaelson family.

“Billy, Jacob, get back in here!”

“I am afraid that they are taking a nap at the moment,” Idonea called out in reply, her voice echoing above the high volume of the stereo they had playing in the front room where the majority of the tomb vampires were enjoying a game of pool. “One which you will all be joining them in now.”

Then, before any of them could react to Idonea’s words, the cracks as their necks were snapped echoed throughout the house and the thuds that followed as their bodies dropped to the floor. Idonea sighed as she brushed non-existent lint from her clothes before then making her way down the stairs in the kitchen that led into the basement. She stepped over the unconscious body of yet another tomb vampire but then slipping into the side room that housed a Stefan that was dangling from the ceiling like a pig on a meat hook, and another who had stakes driven through his thighs and into the chair he was tied too.

Harper, the polite one, or as polite as a vampire could be, anyway.

“Idonea?” Stefan blinked, his head flopping about as he fought for consciousness. There had been vervain dripped into his eyes and his wrists were bloody and raw from the vervain on the ropes. He was so weak it was almost pitiful. There was nothing about him that reminded Idonea of the ripper she knew of. At least, not _yet._

The foundation of Stefan and Elena’s relationship would soon begin to crack, Idonea could make sure of that. She cared not of Elena’s happiness. The doppelgänger could be with whoever she wished, but Stefan…. Stefan could have happiness dangling like bait before him as Idonea then snatched it away.

Sharp nails dug into the flesh of the neutered ripper as Idonea held his chin in her grasp and forced his head up straight so that their eyes connected. Eyes were the windows to the soul, and the doctor did so enjoy watching them as they fluttered through emotions, through memories and plans. So much could be read if one knew where to look.

“Hello, Stefan, you seem to have gotten yourself in quite the mess here.” She smiled a smile of snow; soft, gentle, and ice. “Do not speak, do not move, simply _respond.”_

Stefan’s eyes widened as Idonea’s person suit was once again pulled back to reveal the monster that lurked beneath the surface. He grunted in pain as her fingernails were dragged across his skin, thin lines of blood trickling down his skin in their wake. Soon enough his skin was covered in blood and wounds, and Idonea took a step back to admire her work.

A large cursive M was etched into Stefan’s bare chest for the world to see, as the young vampire was far too weak to heal himself. He had been temporarily branded but Idonea had no problem in making it a permanent thing as his life belonged to her family, without them he would not exist. Few vampires seemed to understand that these days. It was truly pitiful how her brothers and sister had gone around growing their race, as they allowed those born of their blood to live without fear of their names.

Her head was then turned to the side slightly as she heard the distant roar of a car engine. It appeared that tweedle dee and tweedle dum had finally arrived with the baby hunter in training. Idonea had left him alone for the most part, besides the little spy she had assigned to him so that she knew his every move.

She looked back to Stefan as car doors slammed shut. “You do not remember who inflicted these wounds on you. I arrived here only moments ago after managing to get Miss Gibbons to allow me inside. I am your rescuer. I am the one that saved you.” Idonea then smiled slyly. “You will never feed on Elena Gilbert’s blood _._ In fact, your body rejects it and you will forgo this pathetic vegetarian diet of yours until I tell you otherwise.”

The doctor then looked over her shoulder at the other conscious vampire.

“Now what am I going to do with you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little sneak peek of what Idonea’s relationship is like with the Mikaelsons! I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far, even though not much has happened.


	7. Hundrað Dauðr, Þúsund Kvikr

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are only a few chapters left before the Originals plotline gets kicked into action and I for one am so ready for it to finally happen! I didn’t realise how much the first season bored me until I have to replay episode after episode to make sure that I’m not putting misinformation into my chapters.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Seven**  
 **Hundrað Dauðr, Þúsund Kvikr  
** _hundred dead, thousand alive_

* * *

**(Sunday the 7 th of February, 2010. The Kitchen, Gilbert House, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**“I** can’t believe him. I mean, I _can_ , but–”

Idonea raised an eyebrow but said nothing in response as Jenna Sommers scoffed to herself as she paced around the Gilbert kitchen with a nearly empty wine glass in hand. Her lips were set into an angry frown as she continued to rant off various complaints to Idonea about the latest unwanted live in addition to the Gilbert household.

The doctor shifted her legs, switching which one was rested on the other in a show of normal human fidgeting.

“It is in tune with his character.”

Jenna shot her a scolding look over the rim of her glass. “His character is that of a dickhead.”

Idonea smiled as she twirled her glass for a moment before then bringing it to her lips, swallowing a mouthful of the cheap red wine Jenna had opened exactly an hour and twenty minutes ago, as soon as Idonea had stepped foot in the house. It could have been worse wine. Could have been pink.

“I do not disagree with that, but you surely saw this happening.” She then placed the glass back onto the counter island before her. “Whenever he is given the chance, John will always do something that, in turn, will irritate you.”

“I hate him,” Jenna replied as she refilled her glass.

“Love and hate are two sides of the same coin.”

A tea towel was immediately thrown in her direction as soon as the words had left her lips, and Idonea moved ever so slightly to the side so that the cloth sailed over her shoulder instead of smacking her in the face as Jenna had attended it too. She then raised an eyebrow at one of the few people in Mystic Falls that Idonea found herself enjoying the company of.

A sly smile etched across her lips as Jenna huffed.

Her friendship with the doppelgänger’s aunt had been an unexpected one, but not one that Idonea had found herself regretting.

It hadn’t begun intentionally, as another pawn in her chess game, but rather it had been one that slowly developed of its own accord as Idonea had continued to interact more and more with the Gilbert family, as she was slowly accepted into the family, which Jenna was a part of through her sister’s marriage.

It was a simple friendship, but one that Idonea found herself grateful for.

“Shove that psychology degree up your ass.”

She took another sip of her wine and said nothing of Jenna’s rude behaviour.

Unless the rest of her family, there was a method behind Idonea’s kills and that was rude behaviour. She detested rude people and there were only a rare few individuals that she could ever allow to speak to her as the blonde did. Elijah had said that those people were picked because Idonea found them interesting. She couldn’t disagree. Serial killers often had an appearance preference towards those they killed.

Idonea picked those that acted rudely towards her or those she had claimed as her own.

Her family had often said that it made her more unpredictable. Idonea was as unpredictable as Kol was. Their personalities had developed together, after all. She would wait for several decades before she finally decided to kill the person who had shoved in front of her in the line for a cappuccino that one time. On the other hand, she would also kill the person who had tried to overcharge her for something they had thought she had known nothing about the next day.

Regardless of when she decided to kill a person, she always drew out the death process as she enjoyed the rush torturing them while they still breathed gave her. Their suffering was prolonged for as long as possible. Occasionally she even found herself healing them only for her to start the entire process all over again.

It painted a rather different Idonea than the Idonea who was sat drinking wine in the kitchen of a human but then again, it was all simply another of her many masks.

“You did sleep with him.”

“I wish I’d never told you that!” Jenna groaned.

Idonea laughed again, before then shaking her head with mock disappointment as she slowly rotated one of three rings that sat on her left index finger, one of two intricate-looking thin silver bands. Of course, it was often the case that the smallest of things proved to be the most misleading.

People tended to overlook the silver bands due to the fact that on the bottom of the same finger Idonea wore a large pyramid-shaped piece of magnesite.

“You should never allow alcohol to cloud your mind then.”

“I hate you.”

“I adore you as well, Jenna.”

At the sound of a door opening and footfalls crossing the landing, Idonea glanced over her shoulder as Elena made her way down the stairs. She took a sip of her wine as she noted the faint flush that had once again begun to spread across light olive skin. She imagined that it was causing rather the effect on Stefan currently, regardless of the compulsion that prevented him from taking that much-wanted bite. The vampire had already taken to stealing blood bags from the hospital, so she knew that he had fallen from his vegetarian wagon.

He would have to be punished eventually for stealing from her, of course, but for now, she would leave him to his own devices.

It was much more fun that way.

The cracks were slowly appearing in the foundations of Elena and Stefan’s relationship and soon enough, the doppelgänger would find comfort in the arms of her boyfriend’s brother. Idonea was only too amused by that fact, of history repeating itself such. Regardless of how Damon’s behaviour made her wish to rip his spleen out and made a stew with it, Idonea allowed him to live for the simple fact that it would eventually cause Stefan pain.

She was petty that way and had been even before she had been turned.

Had killed more than her few share of women that had decided that her brother’s bed was where they belonged because of it. Kol and Bekah had only been too happy to help her. Of course, back then she would have never called him her brother, but times changed especially after one’s heart was ripped from their chest and spat on by the one, they loved the most.

The term brother was much more punishment for her than the threat of daggering was.

“Hey, Aunt Jenna, Doctor Rune,” Elena smiled as she entered the kitchen. It was the same warm smile that she always showed Idonea. Regardless of the discovery of her dual nature, Elena still very much trusted the women she saw before her. That trust had only grown as Idonea _helped_ the scooby gang with their various little supernatural problems.

“Good evening, Elena.”

Elena moved past Idonea as she headed to the fridge, opening it to remove a jug of orange juice that sat inside. A glass was taken from one of the overhead cupboards as she then poured herself a drink. Jenna watched her with a frown on her face as she took in Elena’s flushed appearance as the orange juice was returned to the fridge.

“When’s your next appointment?”

“Tuesday,” Elena smiled as she turned to her aunt. “I’m fine, Jenna.”

Idonea twirled her glass again.

It was at times like this that she wished that she too had a television remote that allowed her to skip scenes instead of being forced to suffer through them, but it seemed that only Adam Sandler’s Michael Newman had that sort of power at his fingertips.

Her fingernails tapped against the glass. The urge to take inspiration from her son and send the latest doppelgänger off into a dreamless sleep was sometimes all too tempting. It would make her life so much easier if the troublesome teenager was removed from the situation and reduced to a glorified blood bag. 

Idonea enjoyed her games too much to remove pawns before their time, however.

She finished the wine in her glass as Elena made her way back upstairs, orange juice in hand. Aside from the flushed appearance, it didn’t look as though she had any other symptoms. The doctor could count on one hand the few times where Elena had passed out due to a missed appointment. Those had all been a part of the plan, of course, but regardless.

Humans had trouble accepting an illness if nothing ever occurred from it. It sold the illusion of illness more when real complications showed up. Little seven-year-old Elena had passed out on the top of the landing and tumbled down the stairs after having had missed an appointment. The unusual number of nosebleeds she had suffered with as a child. 

Stefan Salvatore should be grateful to Idonea that she had stopped that particular symptom from continuing into her teens.

It was rather dangerous for someone with magic blood to regularly bleed around supernatural beings that feed on the stuff, after all.

Jenna then snorted in amusement as the sudden sound of a quick snippet of the song _She Wolf_ began to echo from the speakers of Idonea’s phone. Her fingers swept across the phone as she typed in her password and loaded the text message she had just been sent. She then smiled at the picture that filled her screen, at the wooded scenery.

“Where’s Ylva now? Sipping cocktails in Paris?”

“Costa Rica.”

“Can’t believe I’m jealous of an eighteen-year-old.”

The doctor smiled before she then stood from the stool she had been seated on. At the confused look on Jenna’s face, she then gestured a hand towards the clock that hung on a nearby wall. It was the day of the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, after all, and Jenna hadn’t begun to get ready for her to attend it yet. Idonea had stopped attending herself after Ylva had left Mystic Falls to begin her search around the world. She saw no need for her to attend when there was nothing that needed to be changed from the direction it had gone in the original storyline.

She had only ever attended in the first place as her daughter had wanted to put arrogant Founding Families in their places.

“I believe you should start getting ready if you do not wish to be late.”

Jenna’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, Rick’s coming in an hour!”

“I find time flies when you complain about boys.”

“If only John would fly.”

“Lead him to the nearest cliff and I would happily push him for you,” Idonea tilted her head with a roguish grin.

John Gilbert was a pawn of little importance that she saw little need to prolong the life of, after all, his existence had allowed the scooby gang to obtain the means of putting members of her family down in the form of a pesky little dagger, although without the Jonathan Gilbert’s journal originally located in the Gilbert Lakehouse she wondered if the gang would find out before or after that the dagger killed vampires that wielded it.

That would be something interesting to see in the future.

The only semi-important thing John had ever played in the second story had been his death, which had been used to bring the doppelgänger back to life. He was useful for that simple fact alone, but not essential to keep around. Idonea’s plans would work with or without him. He was only a pawn on her chessboard, and she had more than enough of those to go around. It was only too simple for her to have someone else replace the role dear 'Uncle John' played.

It did make it more fun when the pawns didn’t, in turn, know they were pawns, however.

Speaking of she couldn’t help but wonder how her favourite little doppelgänger was doing. Idonea would find out soon enough. There was only a matter of weeks before Katerina Petrova finally arrived in Mystic Falls after all. A simple matter of a handful of days before one of Katerina’s own pawns arrived before that.

“Don’t attempt me.”

Idonea laughed in amusement before she said her goodbyes and headed out the front door.

Maybe it was finally time for her to pay the murdered witches of Mystic Falls a little visit, to make sure that they knew it was in their best interest to not side against her family. It was as her brother had said or would say, after all, a hundred dead witches have a thousand living descendants. Idonea had no problem with killing every last one of them to get what she wanted either. It was easy to get what she wanted when she knew how to play the cards she had been dealt.

Although the temptation was there to allow Bonnie Bennett to take in the power of all the witches.

To see Elijah with his fist in Niklaus’ chest, his heart in hand, appealed to the broken-hearted girl from years ago. Niklaus had ripped Idonea’s heart out, after all, and some part of her still wanted him to pay for that regardless of the fact that he was still family and family was forever.

Decisions.

Decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idonea has a friend? And it’s Jenna? Surprise! I’ve always liked Jenna in the show and thought it wasteful to ruin the character as they did. Matt can survive to the end of the series and Jenna can’t? Boo. Not in this plotline! I know what some of you are thinking, what, Idonea was in love with Niklaus? Yes. More will be revealed soon enough. I’ve also hinted at how Idonea’s son is and I wonder if you can pick it out.


	8. Aska Til Aska

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to look at the AO3 bookmarks for this story, to see if anyone has tagged anything other than what I’ve already used. **nihama9492** used the tag “elena gilbert is a magical unicorn” and it just made me snort in amusement. Ah, thank you! I’ll be stealing that tag.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Eight**  
 **Aska Til Aska  
** _ashes to ashes_

* * *

**(Thursday the 25 th of February, 2010. Mystic Grill, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**_Tap,_ ** _tap, tap, tap-tap-tap._

Idonea’s head tilted a fraction to the right, green eyes lazily sliding over her companion as Violet continued to run her fingertips across the table almost absentmindedly, slender fingers moving fluidly, seamlessly, as though she were sat in front of the grand piano in the ballroom of Villa Vittoriosa and not a booth in the Mystic Grill.

_Tap, tap, tap, tap-ta-ta-tap-tap-tap-tap, tap._

The doctor twirled a glass of whiskey around in silence. Her eyes were closed as she imagined the pair sat in a packed theatre watching a performance of _Phantom of the Opera._ It was far too easy for her to tune out whatever it was that played from the various speakers that surrounded them in favour of Violet’s tapping of the song. Pool balls then ratcheted noisily off each other in the distance and Idonea sighed as she brought the glass to her lips, swallowing a burning mouthful of vervain tainted whiskey.

She found that it gave the alcohol a little extra _bite._

“How much longer?”

“Only a few more minutes now, my dear.”

Violet sighed as her tapping seized, which caused Idonea to open her eyes as the brunette folded her arms over her chest and reclined back in the booth seat, her legs stretching out across the table legs. The doctor raised an eyebrow in amusement as the Morgan witch practically vibrated with impatience over the fact that there was still more waiting to be done.

“I do not recall you being this impatience before.”

Blue eyes rolled and Idonea was reminded of the fact that Violet was still very much a teenager. “I still don’t see why you want _her.”_

A roughish grin easily formed across her face. “Insurance.”

Violet blinked as Idonea brought the glass to her lips once again. A moment later realisation bloomed in the teenager’s eyes. Then she scoffed, laughing quietly under her breath as her attention slowly moved across the Grill until she finally found the topic of conversation herself. Caroline Forbes seemed blissfully unaware of the eyes on her as she attempted to converse with a highly moody Matt Donovan—who the blonde was currently dating.

It was such a terrible match.

Idonea wouldn’t allow it to continue once the blonde was brought into the family.

Although she would also not allow some of Caroline’s other relationship to come into fruition either. She was mildly undecided on who the newest addition to the family would be allowed to be with, but the doctor knew who she would _not_ be able to be with. That was one pair that would never come to the light of day.

She sometimes found it amusing that she had liked the pairing so much Before.

“She’ll still be annoying.”

“Do not worry, my dear,” Idonea smiled even as her fingers briefly tightened around her glass, as memories of the blonde and a certain _brother_ passionately pressed up against a tree in the nearby woods flashed through her mind. “You will find a much different person at the end of this.”

Caroline had become a vastly different person as a vampire when compared to the person she currently was, after all. Vampirism had made her blossom from a weed into a rose and Idonea had every intention of manipulating events so that Caroline ended up in her pocket instead of the scooby gangs as she had proven herself useful later along in the second story. Granted that usefulness had been used for the wrong people, but the doctor could see it being used for all the right reasons this time around.

Said group would be less inclined to stake the doctor once they found out that the blonde belonged to Idonea’s sireline as well, thus the blonde was also insurance.

It would be easy to get to her before Damon Salvatore managed to put his blood into her system, however, it would also only be too easy for her to siphon his blood out of her system if he managed to get to Caroline before her. There was only a matter of deciding exactly whose blood would then be used to turn the blonde. Idonea had a collection of vials that contained the blood of each member of her sireline for this very sort of situation—and various other situations.

And each of her children, and their children after them, had a preference when it came to the people they turned.

Idonea refused to make Caroline one of her children, but she had no such problem with making her a grandchild or great-grandchild. It was only then the simple matter of deciding which subsections of her family the blonde could seamlessly fit into. The Caroline Forbes sized piece fit into many empty gaps in her children’s families. 

The doctor then blinked as a thought came to her, a long-forgotten memory of a life lived in a universe far, far away.

Caroline had once reminded a certain vegetarian vampire of his best friend. Of Alexia Branson, a vampire that Idonea’s second-oldest son and fourth oldest child had turned in this world. However, her son already had much on his plate, with the addition of teaching his daughter their rules on top of his already busy workload. It would be extremely cruel for her to add another child on top of that when he had already been punished by her oldest for disobeying the aforementioned rules himself.

Nonetheless, a child he had never asked for.

It had been quite a while since she had raised anything, let alone a newborn vampire, and keeping her close and emotionally attached to the family would go a long way in ensuring her loyalty stayed in the right place. That place being _away_ from the scooby gang and their magical unicorn of misfortunate.

From what she remembered, Caroline had been quick to adapt to a vampiric lifestyle. She had taken to it like a duck in water. Of course, under Idonea’s guidance, the blonde would become even more of a proper vampire. Someone to be feared. Someone who would do her sireline proud. Idonea didn’t allow for disappointments after all.

Alexia’s boyfriend was constantly toeing the line of disappointment and acceptance.

Rowan had been furious once Lee had appeared on his doorstep and her son had been quick to palm his grandson and his daughter’s boyfriend—sireline were always intertwined in a way that would make humans sick—off onto his other daughter.

Grace was still being punished for turning Lillian Salvatore and allowing her to slaughter her way up the coast, after all.

Idonea swallowed another mouthful of whiskey.

The Heretics.

She almost laughed at the thought of her great-great-grandchildren.

There was so much potential there for them to become great and it was being wasted so pitifully. They were a footnote in the history of vampires. No-one but their wardens remembered them. Nevertheless, the little coven of siphoner-vampires belonged to her sireline, and she fully intended to bring them into the fold once they were released. Minus erasing a few tainted smudges on their family tree, of course.

The events that had caused the prison worlds to be broken were still a little ways away.

She knew how to speed it up, however, and she fully intended it once her brothers and sister were back together again. Her son had been gone long enough. Had learnt all that he had needed to learn while in his prison. Had no doubt gotten what she had told him to get and even if he hadn’t, she knew how to go through into the world to get it herself.

Her little Malachai, who reminded her so much of her Kol, had willingly gone to the prison world to play the long con.

The Gemini coven had placed her son in their prison to punish him, but they had been foolish to think that she hadn’t warned him beforehand. Hadn’t told him what would happen. Her son was far from stupid. He was _her_ son, after all. She had raised him. The Parker family might have sheltered him, but she had been the one to kiss his wounds and love him. She had been the one that allowed him to flourish instead of being crushed under their hateful words.

Her son wasn’t trapped.

He was simply partaking in extracurricular activities. 

All those magical places and books. All those wonderfully duplicated objects. They were all at his fingertips with no-one to stop him from taking them. The only negative side-effect of the prison world was the lack of social interaction. Or at least, it had been in the original story.

Idonea knew how to interact with the other worlds through the use of communication crystals, after all.

“God,” Violet muttered to herself. “I forgot how much the Mayor is a fucking asshole.”

Idonea hummed in disinterest. Matters concerning the Mayor of Mystic Falls concerned her not. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Caroline bounced up from her seat and made her way over to the Mayor and his son. Wolves had such violent tempers. She had grown up around enough to know that. Had even raised a wolf. However, she knew how the pack mentality worked.

Perhaps if Richard Lockwood was a better alpha, then his son would follow orders.

Despite not being a wolf herself, Idonea was the alpha of her daughter. Her word was law. Ylva had never disobeyed her. In turn, Ylva was the alpha of her own pack and they would die before they allowed something to happen to her and that was exactly how the doctor had wanted things to go.

“Isn’t his tenure up yet?”

“I imagine he will not be in power for much longer.”

A small grin grew across Violet’s face as she caught the meaning behind Idonea’s words. It made life easier when they were careful to avoid prying eyes and ears, after all. No, Richard Lockwood would not be in power for much longer at all. He would die tonight, and the doctor wouldn’t blink an eye. She had enough werewolves at her fingertips that the loss of one untriggered one would go unnoticed.

He was a mutt in her eyes and mutts had no place in the pack.

“My dear.”

Violet turned her attention back to the doctor, who nodded. “It’s time?”

“Indeed. You know what you must do.”

The Morgan witch rolled her eyes as she jabbed a finger in the direction of the gender-neutral bathrooms, where Annabelle had disappeared into only moments ago. Idonea had made a deal with Pearl to protect the pair while they remained in Mystic Falls the day she had 'saved' Stefan. John Gilbert had already failed to stake one due to Idonea’s protection.

In order for her plans involving Jeremy Gilbert to work, however, the youngest Gilbert would have to be unaware that his girlfriend hadn’t been staked in the basement of the old Gilbert clinic. For a time at least. As soon as he was in transition, she would allow Anna to return to him again. A simple illusion spell on another vampire would convince John easily enough, and then all she had to do was wait until Damon told the boy of his girlfriend’s unfortunate demise.

A vampiric Jeremy was far more appealing than a hunter one, after all.

Idonea smiled in amusement as Violet groaned but said nothing further as the young witch slid out of the booth and made her way towards the bathroom, pushing and shoving her way through anyone unfortunate enough to stand in her way. It was a shame that Eloise’s siblings were not siphoners like her. They would have made such excellent children.

The doctor downed her glass.

She then swung her legs around as she stood before stepping out into the chilly night.

Fireworks blared above the crowd outside and cheers echoed as the sparks lit up the sky, silhouetting their faces in the bright light. Mayor Lockwood and his wife walked away from the podium, their bodies tense as they attempted to escape the carnage that would soon follow. Unfortunately for them, only one would. Idonea continued to watch in silence as several tomb vampires begun to make their way through the crowd in an attempt to intercept the pair on their way.

The doctor didn’t react when the high-pitched squealing began to echo in her ears.

She had put herself through enough pain and torture over the years that it took a lot more to reduce her to the pitiful sight of a crumpled up mess like the other vampires had been reduced to. It was certainly at times like this that made her realise how much superior her sireline was, as she listened to the vague screams of the vampires who had collapsed.

Newborns weren’t allowed to go their own way until they learnt their place and were able to withstand the pain of magic and other such things that rendered them ineffective in a fight against someone that wished their end.

A little bit of magic like this would do nothing against her sireline.

Idonea sighed in disappointment at the sight of children belonging to her siblings bettered by humans before she then turned on her heels and began to make her way towards Grayson Gilbert’s old clinic, which would soon become consumed by flames.

While she was fairly certain that John had allowed the device to burn with the rest of the clinic in the original story, she refused to allow it to slip through her fingers here. Regardless of how ineffective it was against her, it still worked wonderfully against vampires and werewolves alike. She theorised it would work just as well against hybrids and she wanted it in her collection. She had no need nor wish to have the rings in her possession, but she refused to allow them to exist for much longer.

Alaric would simply have to be more careful in the future unless he wished to be permanently dead. 

Her mother had whispered in his ear enough already.

The crackle of fire and the sound of wood sinking into flesh was like music to her ears as she arrived at the clinic, her feet carrying her towards the utility door around the side of the building and into the building where all the tomb vampires were neatly tied up with a pretty little bow. She wondered if the scooby gang had ever figured out that Katerina had wanted them dead so that none of them could let Niklaus know that she hadn’t perished in the tomb all those years ago.

Faster than visibly possible to see, Idonea flashed through the clinic and took the device from where John had left it and safely tucked it away inside of her bag.

John Gilbert then recoiled in surprise as he pushed open the door that led into the basement only to see her standing opposite the wall.

“Kindly hand over the compass and your ring, John, and forget this little encounter happened.” She then silenced him before he had a chance to reply, as he realised that she knew more than he had expected her to know. His little tests had only been too easy to get around. “A pawn must obey the orders of its queen.”

She smiled at him as he stepped toward her, enjoying the delightful way his heart skipped a beat before he was forced to follow her orders, his pupils dilated under the effect of her compulsion. It had only been too easy to abduct him on his way out of town some years ago and wait until the vervain left his system before then planting her orders into his mind.

Idonea was the Mikaelson puppet master.

Her puppets were simply unaware of the fact until it was too late.

Once the Gilbert compass and John’s ring had entered her possession, she placed them too inside of her black studded handbag and watched as John left, oblivious to the fact that he had handed them over to her in the first place. She much preferred the man as a zombie. He wouldn’t be alive much longer to annoy her, however.

She waited in silence for a few minutes until she heard the commotion of Elena yelling at her father-uncle, which also signalled the arrival of her least favourite vegetarian vampire. Although he hadn't been doing much bunny killing as of late. Then she timed it perfectly so that Stefan arrived just as she had opened the door and brushed aside the flames that raised up the stairs with a simple look.

“Idonea.”

“Stefan.” She nodded at the other half of the Salvatore brothers, who looked surprised to see her where he had found her before his attention then went down into the basement. The vampire was quick to race down the stairs then once he realised Idonea had cleared a pathway.

The doctor then waited until he came lumbering back up the stairs with a vervained and weak Damon.

“I told you my witch was the better choice,” he weakly muttered as the trio made their way back through the clinic, no doubt referring to the fact that they had trusted Bonnie to dispel the device instead of asking Idonea, who had _conveniently_ been busy the entire week around Founder’s Day so that they went to the Bennett witch instead.

“Babies are rarely the right choice,” she replied before then narrowing her eye in disapproval at the sight of Elena and Bonnie stood in the parking lot. The little flinch that Bonnie showed almost made her smile. “Come to admire your work, darlin’?”

“I couldn’t allow them to hurt anyone.”

Idonea hummed. “No. However, it is one thing to lie to your enemies, it is another to lie to your friends.” She nodded at Elena. “Next time they ask you to do something you disagree with, tell them the trust. Do not allow friendship to sway your actions. You are your own person, after all.”

Bonnie managed a weak smile at her words before she then glanced towards Elena and her pair of vampires and after a moment of deliberation wandered off in the direction of the Mystic Grill. Soon one person that would have helped the scooby gang free themselves from trouble would be removed, while the wedges between Bonnie and the rest were slowly forming.

Lies easily broke trust.

It was why Idonea usually liked to operate on half-truths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Season 1 done! Finally. Now we can finally get the ball rolling and introduce my favourite characters. I was originally going to have Idonea remove Damon’s blood from Caroline’s system and have her remain human, but I simply couldn’t do that. I like her too much. Thus, she is joining Idonea’s sireline.
> 
> And yes, you did read that right, Idonea tortures her sireline when they are first turned so… maybe it would have been better for Caroline if Damon turned her. Welp.
> 
> I also have **two** questions for my lovely readers!  
> 1) What are some other “command” phrases you think Idonea should use? So far, I have introduced “Doctor’s orders” and “A pawn must obey the orders of its queen.”  
> 2) Which background pairings would you like to see in this story?


	9. Sjón Yfir Inn Óvættr Inn Gríma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, my favourite female character has arrived but is not seen in this chapter. Pity. I simply love Katherine. I can’t wait until the Originals come about so I can finally show instead of telling everyone about Idonea’s relationships with each of them. I know everyone is just itching to find out what happened between her and Niklaus.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Nine**  
 **Sjón Yfir Inn Óvættr Inn Gríma  
** _gaze at the monster (beneath) the mask_

* * *

**(Thursday the 25 th of February, 2010. Sphinx Hospital, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**Heeled** boots echoed through the corridor as they clicked harshly across the tiled flooring, the door to the operating door swinging open as Idonea stepped out into the corridor itself wearing a white coat and a pair of blue latex gloves covered in blood. Long strands of white had escaped the hasty bun she had thrown her hair into and fell across her shoulders. Hidden beneath the coat was a pair of tight jeans and a low-cut shirt, highlighting the fact that the doctor hadn’t been able to change before she had been called into the hospital.

With a sigh, Idonea disposed of the gloves into the nearby waste bin just as the door swung open once again and Caroline Forbes was wheeled out by the nurses who had been in the operating room with the doctor and the rest of her team. She nodded at them with a grim smile as they moved through the corridors.

None of them saw the amusement hidden behind the shadows of her eyes, however, as Idonea watched as Caroline was wheeled towards one of the empty rooms.

The surgery had been a success as Idonea had managed to stop the bleeding and the pooled blood had been cleared out, but it wasn’t enough. The blonde had lost too much blood and was far too weak. She would be hooked up to blood bags and machines, but it was already too late to do anything else.

It would be highly unlikely that Caroline would live to see tomorrow’s sunset.

A small vial of blood in the doctor’s handbag awaited her, however, and soon naïve, weak and human Caroline Forbes would be erased from existence and in her place would stand a strong, powerful vampire of Idonea’s sireline. She had no plans of allowing any of the scooby gang to interfere regarding anything to do with Caroline’s vampiric lifestyle. No plans of allowing either of the Salvatore brothers to poke their fingers into matters that didn’t concern them, Damon with his stake nor Stefan with his once again vegetarian diet.

Once she had turned, Idonea would take the fledgeling to Villa Vittoriosa and keep her there until she deemed her ready enough to interact with humans again.

She was sure that the scooby gang would find things they deemed more important soon enough, with the realisation that her favourite doppelgänger had finally shown up in town and had managed to fool one-half of the Salvatore brothers already and gotten an invitation into Elena’s home. John Gilbert had already lost his fingers but sadly not his life.

Stefan had once again returned to his vegetarian lifestyle after Idonea had removed the compulsion some days ago once the splinters in his and Elena’s relationship had begun to visibly crack. Soon enough it would all shatter into reality. They would have never lasted even without her meddling anyhow.

Idonea shook her head.

How could someone claim to love another when they knew next to nothing about them? Then they tried to change them into something they weren’t? She herself was under no illusion about the people she loved, she knew who and what they were. She loved them for that. They all had their monsters, some more visible than others.

“Doctor Rune! How is she?”

Idonea paused, looking over in the direction of Elizabeth Forbes, who had been pacing around the nurses' station for the last hour and a half while her daughter was in surgery. Matt Donovan and Bonnie Bennett were seated together on one of the hard, plastic benches, both of whom stood up immediately once they spotted her making her way over to the group.

“The bleeding has been stopped; however, Caroline’s condition has not stabilised.”

“What—” Liz paused, closing her eyes as she shook her head. “What does that mean?”

Idonea sighed faintly, her face expertly twisting into an expression that spoke of the grim reality of the situation. “It means that Caroline is simply too weak in her current situation. It is highly unlikely that she will make it through the night. I am sorry Liz.”

The sheriff's stance wobbled, as she fell against the nurses’ station and her legs threatened to give out from underneath her as grief overtook her at the thought of losing her daughter. Idonea’s eyes flickered over to the boyfriend and the best friend. Matt had buried his head in his hands while Bonnie shook with silent tears as she fell against a nearby wall.

She could see it in her eyes, that the witch blamed herself for what had happened.

The device she had pretended to deactivate, the device that was tucked away in the doctor’s handbag, had been the cause of the car crash that had resulted in Caroline being hospitalised, that would soon result in her death. All the pieces were coming together now, all the little pieces of various plans were coming to fruition.

All of Idonea’s little pawns were lined up on the field, ready for the next big play.

In a month, a single measly month, her big brother would join the board. Of course, she was sure that Elijah knew that a game was being played, as a game was always been played where Idonea was involved and Elijah had always been the best chess player. She had been playing since the moment she had entered the world, realised where she was. She had to be careful, had to calculate every little movement she made and how it would impact the world no matter how big nor small.

She hadn’t quite as good at it as she was now back when she had been a simple siphoner.

Mistakes had been made and there was no doubt more to come.

Her biggest mistake, however, had always been allowing herself to grow close to Henrik when she knew his untimely fate. The timeline for back then had always been so foggy, something almost non-existent. Still, a moment of weakness had her rushing to Esther and Mikael, to the place she called home, a part of her hoping it wasn’t too late to save him.

It was.

A matter of minutes later, Niklaus’ screams had echoed through the village as he carried Henrik’s broken body in his arms. A part of her had considered the boy her little brother. Someone she had to protect like the others. His death had broken off a piece within her. It had changed her as it had changed them all.

Henrik’s death had been the catalyst and Idonea had been the match hesitant to light him aflame, her love for the boy staying her arm, preventing her from acting.

She was vastly different now.

There was no hesitation, only cold calculation. She knew what needed to be done and done it was. Oh, some plans had changed, been tweaked as other things happened that she hadn’t foreseen but they were easy to manage. She had had a thousand years to plan. Idonea wasn’t her older brothers. Wasn’t her sister either. Perhaps, the ones most comparable to her were, in fact, her father and her other half.

Her dead father, who would soon return only to be foiled by children with plot armour.

Her twin, who would soon return only to be foiled by children with plot armour.

The same children.

None of whom were important in the slightest. Well aside for Elena, but it wasn’t _her_ that was important, it was her blood. Blood Idonea had been taking for years now, and before that, she had had years with the other doppelgängers she had found, both from Amara’s line and Silas’. It was easy to find what she was looking for when she knew the origins. Doppelgängers were all connected, after all, a pair born every few centuries together and meant for each other.

Katerina was never meant to have Stefan, who in turn was never meant to have Elena.

Still, because of them, Idonea had found others.

“Bonnie, might I speak with you in private, please?”

The witch nodded, eyes red from tears as she followed Idonea around the corner, away from prying eyes and ears. Bonnie wrapped her arms around her chest, pressing her back against the nearby wall as she avoided the doctor’s eyes, who stared down at her in silence for a few moments.

“I know that you blame yourself for what has happened.” Idonea then stepped forward slightly, gently squeezing a part of her upper arm as she smiled. “Do not forget that I am not only a witch, however, and if you will allow it, I will help Caroline in a way that I can not as a doctor.”

Bonnie’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open to reply when—

“Doctor Rune! Bonnie!”

The doctor blinked as she turned her head to the side to watch as a frantic Elena Gilbert rushed through the corridor as she ran towards them. Tear tracks covered her face, and she looked as though another word of unwelcome news would send her tumbling to the floor. It had happened then. Little Gilbert was on his way to becoming a vampire.

Violet would have to be informed soon so that she could let Anna go to return to him. 

“How’s Caroline?” Elena asked, hurriedly.

Bonnie swallowed hard. “She’s—. She’s weak. They don’t know if she’s going to make it,” she said, hoarsely.

“What?” Elena whispered in disbelief, tears gathering in her eyes as Bonnie moved forward to wrap her arms around the doppelgänger. “Is there something that you can do? Like a spell or something?” She then asked quickly, her eyes wild and teary as she focused on Idonea who stood behind Bonnie.

Idonea shook her head with a grimace, as she had already established herself as a witch that couldn’t heal a fruit fly, none the less a human when she had exposed her duel nature to the scooby gang, which she had told them had been her reasoning for becoming a doctor before her face then shifted into an expression of concern as her eyes moved across Elena’s face.

“Has something else happened?”

“Jeremy, he, he drank some of Anna’s blood and took some pills and—” Tears quickly slid down her cheeks and fell to the floor below. “Stefan said he’s in transition.”

“What?” Bonnie echoed Elena’s previous disbelief.

“You said you could siphon the blood out, right?” Elena continued, as she referred to a previous conversation where Idonea had told the scooby gang what she could do as a siphoner. “So, you can remove Anna’s blood and Jeremy, he, Jeremy wouldn’t have to become a vampire?”

“It is already too late,” Idonea replied, as though it pained her to have to admit and hadn’t been a part of her plan in the first place. “The only thing that is keeping Jeremy alive now is the blood, if it is removed, he will simply reverse to the state he was in before the blood brought him back.”

“Dead.” Elena swallowed. “He’ll be dead.”

“Do it,” Bonnie suddenly said, and Elena’s eyes widened. “What you said earlier, about Caroline, if you can heal her _do it.”_

Idonea nodded. “I will leave you to explain.”

She then made her way down the corridor until she came to Caroline’s room and made a point to keep one ear on Elena and Bonnie’s conversation.

_“Her blood?”_

_“I trust Doctor Rune,”_ Bonnie replied. _“This is Caroline. We can’t let her die.”_

She smiled at the young Bennett witch’s words as she slipped into the room and observed the set-up. The young blonde girl had been attached to multiple IV and blood bags and Idonea could hear the telltale drip-drip of the blood entering her system through the needle in the veins on the front of her hand. Her smile of amusement then twisted as she once again allowed her person suit to spill and allowed the monster underneath to come through to the surface.

A small vial of blood was rolled around in the palm of her hand as she stared down at Caroline’s unconscious form.

The girl’s jaw then moved, as Idonea used magic to pry apart her lips before she then tipped the entity of the vial into her mouth and watching with a smile as Caroline swallowed it all, down to the last drop. Rowan had, of course, been told of what was to come. Of his newest daughter. He had only been too glad when she had then told him she would look after her.

“Good girl.”

Idonea ran the back of her finger across the side of Caroline’s face as the girl’s injuries began to heal from the power of her son’s blood. Her blood. It wasn’t an act of love, but rather an act of possession. Caroline now belonged to Idonea and Idonea only. She was no longer the daughter of Elizabeth Forbes, but the granddaughter of Idonea Rune.

Now all she had to do was wait.

Katerina would finish the rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little pre-hybrid Idonea there! Poor Henrik. I wanted to show that Idonea hasn’t always been a monster, but the monster had always been there. She had once thought of allowing none of this to pass, but as you can tell, that didn’t happen.


	10. Berr Ykkarr Tǫnn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We can finally get started on some of my favourite plots in the series. Of course, that also involves parts I thought were extremely unrealistic and all that, but well, plot armour. Thousand-year-old originals bested by teens? I think _not._ Age equals power as the series kept shoving at us, but we’ve never really _seen_ that used properly.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Ten**  
 **Berr Ykkarr Tǫnn  
** _bare your teeth_

* * *

**(Saturday the 27 th of February, 2010. Mystic Falls High School, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**With** a quiet hum of contemplation, Idonea briefly paused in her stroll through the carnival as she took a moment to glance over the sweets and candies on display at one of the nearby concession stands. Her eyes briefly over the various sugary treats before she then stepped forward to snag a stick of blue candy floss. She twirled it around in her grasp as she dropped a few dollars on the counter for the teen manning the stand before she then ripped off a chunk of sugary fluff to pop into her mouth, feeling it instantaneously melt away on her tongue.

It was as excessively sweet as she remembered it being Before, but despite how much more refined her palette now was compared to the last time she had ever attended a carnival, she found that she still rather enjoyed the taste of candy floss.

It was just yet another thing that had lingered over from her original death.

Idonea slowly picked her way through the sugary fluff as she headed into the high school, moving through the crowds of humans that had gathered for the carnival, mindful to never allow herself to brush even elbows with a single one of them. If there was one thing that her newest grandchild excelled at, it was that she knew how to throw an event, a skill that would prove itself most useful in the years to come as if there was one thing that the doctor’s family enjoyed doing, it was throwing events that everyone turned up for.

Somewhere in the crowd of very unimportant humans, she would find one newly turned Caroline Forbes courtesy of Katerina Petrova. She could sense the familiarity of her blood and the blood of Rowan rushing through the teenager’s veins, pinpointing her exact location. It wasn’t so much as a needle in a haystack but rather an elephant in the said haystack.

Despite knowing the girl’s location, however, Idonea had no desire to find her.

At least not until her fingers had been stained with blood and she had been pushed even further away from the girl she had been only hours before.

Caroline had already made the doctor proud with how fast she had been able to accept the fact that she now needed blood, her self-control, and how fast she had been able to compel a nurse at the hospital to get what she wanted. Normally there would be a price to pay for feeding on her staff, but Idonea found that she could easily forgive Caroline for it.

All she was waiting for now, was for the relationship between the fledgeling and the scooby gang witch to splint before she would then swoop in to protect her granddaughter from those who wished her harm. Caroline no doubt already felt the need to be near Idonea, no doubt felt the all-consuming call that would lead her towards her grandsire. Of course, Idonea had amplified that pull twice fold with a little bit of magic on her end, but regardless of that fact, the pull would have still been there.

All fledgelings felt the need to be with their sires.

Idonea’s second youngest son often compared it to how siring worked in _Buffy_ or _True Blood_ , but then again, Slater had always been the one with the most pop culture knowledge out of all her children. There was a reason Idonea had sought after him, after all, a reason she had eventually made him her information broker.

He was particularly good at it.

She simply had to snatch him up for herself. It would have been a waste to allow his original storyline to be carried out, another pointless death because the scooby gang had gotten involved. Nothing good came of involving oneself with Elena Gilbert and her merry band of idiots.

If Elijah attempted to compel him to kill himself as he had done in the second story, he would find himself vastly disappointed. Idonea’s sired were her children, after all, and a good mother never left her children defenceless. Especially when that mother was a witch of great prowess, feared around the world by those that knew better. She had gotten rather good at tattooing if she did say so herself, having done all her own tattoos and those of her sireline, of her trusted inner circle.

Idonea was rather curious to see what decision Caroline would make regarding the choice of her daylight amulet, and how she would go about overcoming her vervain weakness. All her children and their children after them might have started differently in their decisions themselves, but eventually, they had all ended up in the same place.

She had so enjoyed designing their tattoos, intertwining her magic with the vervained ink.

_“Stefan wants to go.”_

Idonea paused, tilting her head slightly towards the direction she heard Damon Salvatore’s voice emanating from. She found that while it was easy enough to pretend to care about Elena Gilbert, as she did, in a twisted way, care about what happened to the doppelgänger, she found it much harder to pretend to be friendly with the raven-haired vampire. If he had been anyone else, he would have already been tortured ten times over.

He was perhaps the worst example of what a vampire could possibly be.

She didn’t have much of a leg to stand on herself, but well, Idonea had always been a bit of a hypocrite. 

Her newest granddaughter had never suffered under Damon’s hand at least, but that didn’t mean the doctor had forgotten that it had happened in the story, nor would she forgive it. She knew what was to come around the corner, another that would fall victim to the young Salvatore like Caroline had been written too. She also knew what had come before, regarding another of her granddaughters, but for now, Rowan could decide what was to be done about that.

Damon was more like Katerina that he seemed to like to admit to.

“It seems that Stefan needs to rethink his diet again.”

He smirked at her as she slid up alongside her, none of her inner thoughts written across her face as her attention focused solely on the arm-wrestling match going on before them. She watched in veiled amusement as Stefan strained against the werewolf’s strength, their hands locked together, both putting pressure on each other, the muscles in their arms flexing.

She could see why Katerina had chosen the werewolf.

Mason was attractive in a way that reminded Idonea of Niklaus when he had been human, an untriggered wolf himself. She had no plans of allowing Damon to rip out Mason’s heart, nor or allowing Katerina to offer him up on a silver platter as a sacrifice in the hope of being spared her life. She had plans for the wayward doppelgänger, after all.

Ylva had had a crush on the surfer Lockwood for many years as a young teen, and Idonea had never been one to deny her daughter much of anything.

A thud echoed through the corridors as Mason slammed Stefan’s arm down onto the table. As Damon scowled in annoyance at his brother’s failure, Idonea suppressed the cruel smirk that wished to curl the corners of her lips upward at the sight. Vampires were designed to be stronger, faster, and overall better than werewolves. It was how they had been designed and for one in their weaker form to best a vampire in a fight was something truly pitiful to see.

The Salvatore brothers were disappointments to their race, unfit to have her brother’s blood flowing through their veins, no matter how dilated it was. Even when he had been in full ripper mode, Idonea couldn’t see why Niklaus and Rebekah had enjoyed Stefan’s company so much.

She watched as Mason began another match, as Damon and Stefan disappeared around the corner to discuss the nature of the Lockwood family. She still found it amusing that a vampire over a hundred years old thought that he knew everything. It was a problem all the scooby gang had, that they seemed to think they knew everything about anything.

The werewolf’s pack or who had once been his pack had originally only arrived in Mystic Falls in the second story because Tyler had phoned Mason’s apartment looking for answers concerning his first full moon since triggering his curse. However, Idonea knew that the alpha of the pack was extremely interested in the curse of the sun and the moon. A simple phone call, a little crumb of information, would no doubt have the entire pack rushing towards the town that the doppelgänger called home.

Then, Idonea was free to pick through them all, carefully deciding who of them deserved to become _more._

The sire bond could be broken, after all, and while Idonea had no plans of allowing it to happen, she needed to make sure that none of the hybrids Niklaus would make would turn against him. They would be useful in the years to come as cannon fodder if nothing else. There were things to come, things her family were simply not prepared for. Idonea had prepared her sireline, her daughter and her son, her trusted inner circle, but her brothers and her sister were in the dark.

Ylva usually handled the packs, as Idonea had seen it fitting for royal blood to decide werewolf fates, but seeing as how her daughter was still travelling around the world under her orders to find more packs, the doctor would simply have to handle Mason’s pack herself. She already knew of a handful that didn’t deserve the hybrid gift.

She already knew of one that would be more suited as a sacrifice for the true curse.

Idonea even had a vampire all picked out and ready for the other half of it, and who would bring herself into town instead of having to be brought. She thought it more than fitting to sacrifice someone who had turned against her family and didn’t deserve to be forgiven, regardless of what Elijah had promised. Idonea had grown fond of Jenna Sommers, after all.

Foot soldier.

She found it equal parts amusing and _insulting_ that even vampires hundreds of years old didn’t know her family. That Elijah was deemed a foot soldier and not the head of the family like he had been even before Finn had been coffined. To most of the species her family had brought into existence, the original family were myths, stories sires told their fledgelings like human parents told their children stories of the bogeyman.

The bogeyman, of course, being Niklaus, but regardless, she still found it… _demeaning._

“Doctor Rune?”

Idonea turned towards the young masculine voice calling for her attention, an expertly crafted smile painted across her face. Tyler Lockwood stood before her, looking very much different from the usual mask of a confident prick of a rich boy that he usually showed the world. He had once been a young boy crying into her shoulder over his father’s abuse, after all, and his own poorly crafted mask had often fallen apart when he would spend nights over at Villa Vittoriosa when Ylva had been staying at home.

He and Ylva had had a brother-sister relationship since childhood, something that Idonea had encouraged to ensure that the youngest Lockwood’s loyalty was pointed towards the doctor and her family instead of being pointed towards the scooby gang. He would make a fine hybrid, simply not a fine _alpha._ There was another in her mind for that position.

“Hello, Tyler.”

His arm rose, fingertips rubbing across the back of his neck as he quickly took a glance towards his uncle. Mason began his next match and Idonea knew that despite not looking, he had focused all his attention on his nephew. While he might have been an untriggered werewolf the last time they had met, Mason could undoubtedly smell her now.

Just as she could sense him in turn.

“I was wondering if—” He paused, shaking his head as his glance swiftly moved across his uncle once again. “I haven’t heard from Ylva in a while and last I heard from her she was somewhere in the Amazon. I was just wondering if you’ve heard from her?”

Idonea smiled in response as she knew that wasn’t what the teen had intended to ask her when he had come over. Ylva had contacted Tyler just the day before, after having been informed of his father’s death by Idonea herself, after all. Whatever Tyler had intended to ask her, he wouldn’t with his uncle in such close distance. 

“Do not worry yourself, Tyler, Ylva is more than fine.”

“Right, okay,” Tyler nodded.

The doctor tilted her head to the side slightly when he continued to linger. “Was there something else you needed, Tyler?”

He blinked. “Uh, no, it’s okay, thanks, Doctor Rune.”

She watched as Tyler turned to leave, putting an end to their brief conversion as he then disappeared into the crowds and made his way towards one of the school’s exits. Idonea knew he would head towards the parking lot, where he would run into the carnival worker, Carter, who Damon had compelled only minutes ago to attack him in an attempt to figure out what he was. It seemed that the only way of dealing with things, that the younger vampire knew how to handle anyway, was through poorly planned violence.

“Hello, Mason, it has been a while,” she then said as she sensed Mason move up alongside her.

“Idonea. Jenna’s twenty-second, right?”

Idonea laughed. “Indeed. The birthday Jenna decided dancing shirtless on top of a pool table was how to spend her night.”

Mason shook his head in amusement as he recalled one of the few times Idonea had ever spent with the werewolf, then untriggered and oblivious to his curse. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes and was almost tempted to delay him from rushing to Tyler’s aid, to test the waters of triggering Tyler’s own curse sooner, but decided against it. The youngest Lockwood’s time would come soon enough, but for now, tonight was all about Caroline Forbes and her vampirism. 

“Am I right in presuming you approached me, not in a sense of old friendship, but rather because you can smell me?”

Mason stiffened momentarily before he then relaxed as though nothing had happened. Idonea was far too old to not have caught the slip, however, and she had long since learnt all the tricks and trades of human behaviour. Even the supernatural had the same ticks and behaviours, no matter how much they attempted to deny or hide them.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, Idonea, all I smell is that flowery perfume you’ve always worn.”

She smiled. “I can sense you, Mason. You do not smell like a wet dog as Stephenie so artfully put it, but I can still sense the magic of your curse.”

His jaw clenched as he turned so that he was no longer standing beside her, but rather in front of her, facing her. She tilted her head up so that she could stare into his eyes and see all the secrets he hid behind them. A werewolf who wanted the moonstone not for himself, but rather for his vampire girlfriend, who he loved but didn’t in turn trust. She wondered if Katerina had compelled him before he had triggered his curse because she couldn’t imagine falling in love with someone who looked exactly like a child she had watched grow up.

“How is Kathy, Mason?” She watched as his eyes widened, as he faltered. “Of course, I know her as Katherine, or rather Katerina as she was once known by. Something with a kicking _K,_ she always seems to stick to something that keeps the first letter of her name.”

“How do—”

“I am not the enemy here. I think you would find that role is best suited to the Salvatore brothers, considering as one has compelled a carnival worker to attack your nephew in the hope of figuring out the family secret. I think it best if you go save him from a fate decided by Damon Salvatore.”

Mason’s eyes widened as her words registered and his head quickly snapped around as he attempted to locate his nephew.

“You know where I live if you have any further questions, Mason,” Idonea said as he rushed off in the direction Tyler had disappeared towards, not bothering to raise her voice more than a normal speaking tone as she knew that he could still hear her.

Even if Mason managed to get himself killed by Damon, even if Bonnie Bennett for some reason accidentally brought down the veil between the living and the other side, the caves under the Lockwood property wouldn’t be as much help to the scooby gang as they would have been. While she was unable to enter them herself without completely removing the spell that prevented vampires from entering, didn’t mean that Idonea hadn’t sent others in her place to change the story that had been told of her family.

The truth had been twisted, but one thing that had reminded was the drawing pointing towards the existence of a second white oak tree.

False hope and all that.

She smiled in amusement to herself, cruelty glimmering in her teal and seafoam green eyes. All the wooden underpinning built from white oak that had been used on Wickery Bridge the year it had been built had been replaced with ordinary wood and then burnt. The original sign had been sent to Sphinx so that one source of white oak reminded in existence, thus preventing the witches from making another source that she had no idea to its whereabouts. 

Idonea could only just imagine the seething expressions on their faces when they had watched it happen from the other side. The expressions on the scooby gangs faces once they realised that the stakes they would make to put down her family permanently were simply made out of plain old wood, and ordinary wood couldn’t kill an original vampire.

She fitted her mask back into place, sealing her true feelings behind the porcelain mask of Doctor Rune, as she began to slowly walk through the crowded corridors of Mystic High. Unlike her sister, Idonea had never had a desire to go to school. Perhaps it was because she had already done the whole song and dance Before and that previous life experience made it so that she greatly questioned why Stefan attended school repeatedly.

Was it because he wanted to pretend to be the teenager he could never be?

Was it because he liked dating younger women?

There were many different answers to those questions, and Idonea didn’t much care to find out the answers. She understood where Rebekah stood in that situation because Rebekah had never attended school. She wanted to be a part of the classes, the events, and Idonea would make sure that happened. Elena would _not_ be stabbing her little sister in the back.

No-one would be stabbing anyone any longer.

The daggers could either be given to her freely or she would take them by force and make her siblings watch as she erased them from existence. Kol would disagree with melting them all down to nothing, but then again, Kol had been so close to making a dagger that worked on Niklaus. For their family, to be whole again, however, they had to start over.

Which meant no daggers.

One might be able to stay in existence for safety purposes if one of her siblings managed to get themselves cursed or whatnot, but Idonea could also easily desecrate them like what had been done to Mikael. She felt that Niklaus deserved to kill him the most, so she had left the original hunter be, let him rot away in the crypt he had been sealed into. Niklaus had been so abused by the man that he thought to be his father, all because of matters out of his hands.

Well, aside from killing Esther because that had been a decision Niklaus had made on his own, but Idonea fully believed that the witch had deserved what she got. Hel, the doctor had stood by and did nothing as she watched as her brother ripped the heart from the original witch’s chest. A secret Niklaus had trusted her to keep.

A secret he had trusted only one another with.

Idonea’s lips briefly thinned into a small line as she headed out the doors and into the cold, chilling night air, as she recalled long red hair and the rush of hatred that had filled her after crossing paths with _her_. However, before she could head down memory lane and one of the first names that had been written into her little black book, she then froze.

“Watch where you’re going!”

She ignored the teen as he shoved past her, muttering under his breath at having walked into her due to her sudden stop. She ignored it as she inhaled deeply, her eyelids fluttering closed as she opened her mind to the foreign fear and horror that rippled through her being like it was her own. Suddenly she could see through Caroline’s eyes and she watched as the blonde barely held herself together as she sobbed uncontrollably, her arms tightly wrapped around herself, the body of the carnival worker next to her, dead and bloody.

Then Damon Salvatore appeared, and Idonea pulled herself back into her own body.

Caroline was terrified and so she had unconsciously called for her sire, for _someone_ in her bloodline to rescue her, like a wounded child calling for their mother. A pup howling into the night for their pack. Her life had been reset, after all, brought back to the beginning of her creation. Caroline was, in the eyes of other vampires, just a newborn.

Idonea’s boots slammed against the gravel of the ground as she made her way towards the parking lot where she knew her grandchild and the rest of the scooby gang to be or soon would be. Caroline’s scent was on the tip of her tongue, floral and heady, with an undertone of the metallic scent of blood as her feet brought Idonea closer and closer. 

Sobbing echoed in the wind as the doctor reached the parking lot.

She stared at the sight before her, of the familiar blonde-haired teen sobbing as she was wrapped up in the arms of her intended murderer. He started to raise his arm, the glint of the moonlight flickering off the wooden stake in his grasp. Just as Damon was about to bring the stake down on Caroline, Idonea sent him flying a good few feet back with a simple little push of magic that felt much like swatting a fly. 

Idonea was over a thousand years old, after all, she could break Damon in half like a twig all the while doing her hair and nails at the same time. Appearances had to be taken into account for just a little while longer, for a few more short weeks until two of her brothers arrived in town.

The tent peg Damon intended to use as a stake dropped to the ground with an echoing clatter.

“Idonea!” He snarled as he brought him back up onto his feet.

She ignored him as she turned around and her eyes searched Caroline, who’s mouth was stained with fresh, wet blood, the veins under her eyes blaring and her eyes a dark maroon, almost black. Like a mother scolding their child, Idonea sighed under her breath as she cupped Caroline’s cheek in her palm, her thumb stroking over a cheekbone. The blonde instinctively leant into the touch; her body unconsciously relaxing as the vampire within her recognised the bond that existed between the pair.

Caroline then suddenly shrieked in terror, her eyes widening as Elena and Stefan finally appeared on the scene. Nails dug into the leather of Idonea’s jacket, leather that had cost more than the blonde’s house and car put together.

“Get away from me! You killed me!”

Elena’s eyes widened as she faltered, her hand half-raised as she had been about to comfort her friend. “No, no, no, no Caroline. That wasn’t me. You know that. That was Katherine.” She protested, pleading with the blonde who had been told nothing of who Katherine was bar a name that had been told to her moments before her death.

“No! Then why does she look like you? And why— _why_ did she do this to me?” Caroline sobbed hoarsely, tears falling down her cheeks and mixing with the blood on her face.

Idonea wrapped her arms around her granddaughter, the younger girl fruitlessly struggling against her embrace before she then slackened and buried her face in her elder’s shoulder. The doctor made shushing noises under her breath as she ran a hand across the back of the girl’s head, her fingers running through blonde hair. She didn’t much care for the dramatics, but she soothed her just the same, playing the part of the role she filled in the blonde’s life.

It was simply just another mask in her collection.

Idonea soothed the blonde like she used to do with another as Rebekah had always run to Idonea when upset, as the doctor had played the part of sister and pseudo mother. Perhaps that had been another reason behind why Idonea had chosen Caroline, as she sometimes saw who her sister had been in her eyes before Bekah had turned.

“Caroline is in no state to listen to anything you might have to say, Elena,” Idonea said as she looked over her shoulder, meeting the gaze of the teary-eyed doppelgänger. “Please do not push this. She is traumatised. As far as she knows, someone wearing the same face as her best friend murdered her.”

Elena swallowed before then nodding as she took another look at the blonde sobbing in Idonea’s arms.

Damon shrugged his shoulder as he stared indifferently at Caroline. “She will die, it’s only a matter of time.”

“That is not for you to decide, Damon,” Idonea replied.

He snorted. “Oh, yeah, it is.”

He then rushed towards Caroline again, his stake ready to put an end to her for a second time. Idonea’s eyes narrowed in annoyance before Damon then grunted out in pain, the stake dropping from his grasp yet again as he dropped to his knees, his hands raising to press at the sides of his head.

“No, Damon,” Idonea interjected as she stared down at him, her eyes blank and unfeeling as she watched him wither in pain as she emptied just a little more magic into his body. “It is not. Interfere with my blood again, and I will make you regret it.”

“You’re going to turn your back on me for _Barbie_?” He grunted out.

“She is _my_ blood; it is not something you would understand.”

Katerina had abandoned her fledgelings and so her disregard for them had echoed in their own disregard for fledgelings they had turned themselves. There was none of the bond that echoed through Idonea and her sireline, tying them together and linking them as one, as a family. It was nothing that they would ever be able to understand.

“Damon, please, she’s my friend,” Elena pleaded, staring at Damon with wide, brown eyes.

The younger vampire hesitated, his hands slipping around the stake as he stared at Elena, who refused to back down. Then he dropped his arm, wiggling a finger in her face.

“Whatever happens, it’s on all of you.”

“Caroline?”

Idonea hid her amusement behind a mask when she saw that the scooby gang witch had finally arrived on the scene, as Bonnie paled when she saw the blood stained on Caroline’s face, her eyes dawning with horrifying realisation.

 _“Oh. You’re not. You can—”_ She whispered, shaking her head furiously. The witch suddenly rushed forward, forcibly grabbing hold of an arm to tell her what she already knew. Bonnie then recoiled away in horror, and Caroline sobbed anew as she saw the horrified look on her best friend’s face.

“Bonnie?” She asked, helplessly. 

The witch shook her head as she stared at the girl before her, as she saw nothing but a _monster._ The blonde was a vampire, but that decision had been made without her content. That mattered not to the witch. Her reaction to Elena becoming a vampire in the story had been so vastly different, so accepting of the doppelgänger’s newfound status.

 _“Let me help you, darlin’,”_ Idonea whispered softly in Caroline’s ear.

She led her granddaughter away from the emptied parking lot and towards where she had parked her car. The sooner she could get Caroline away from the influences of the scooby gang, the better. The doctor rubbed circles on Caroline’s back and whispered soothing words into her ear as the girl continued to sob helplessly.

Caroline had so much to learn.

Idonea smiled at her as she helped her into the passenger seat of her Bentley before then leaning down on her knee so that she could brush strands of Caroline’s hair from her face. The girl stared at her in wonder as Idonea cleaned the blood from her face before the doctor then leant forward to press a kiss against her granddaughter’s forehead.

“I will protect you, Caroline, you have my word.” Caroline opened her mouth before then closing it, conflict playing across her face. “We are family now.”

Then a small smile lifted the corners of Caroline’s lips. “We are?”

“You have my blood flowing through your veins now, my dear.” Idonea cupped Caroline’s cheek once again. “I am the reason you breathe.”

She then let her mask drop, let the monster beneath the surface rise up and her granddaughter’s eyes widened, hope glimmering, as Idonea’s eyes turned crimson and the veins under her eyelids appeared, moving beneath the surface of her skin.

Caroline didn’t see the cruelty behind Idonea’s smile. She didn’t see the monster that had orchestrated her death by not doing anything to prevent it. All she saw was family, all she could feel was the bond that linked the pair together and all she felt was…

_Safe._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is the first chapter where I’ve used canon lines. Proud of myself for that! Caroline is officially in the palm of Idonea’s hand. Well, everyone already was there, but Caroline is Idonea’s blood now. She will be different from canon Caroline, but there will be a few similarities.


	11. Fregna Inn Tengsl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit of an information dump, as Caroline learns part of the history of Idonea and her newfound family. I’m not writing the entirety of what Idonea tells Caroline, but what I deem the most vital information. The rest will be revealed throughout the story itself as I didn’t want this information dump to be too big.

**Masquerade**

**Chapter Eleven**  
 **Fregna Inn Tengsl  
** _learn(ing) the ropes_

* * *

**(Sunday the 28 th of February, 2010. The Living Room, Villa Vittoriosa, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)**

**Faint** scratching could be heard just below the louder instructional music that filled the air, sunlight filtering in through half-opened curtains, bathing the room in warmth and light as the sun slowly began to rise above the horizon. The leaves of the evergreen trees outside the windows gently swayed in the breeze as Idonea dragged her pencil across paper, across the sketching pad balanced on her raised knee.

Faded lines appeared in the pencil’s wake, as the doctor sketched out the images that sat in her head, simply awaiting the moment they could come alive on the pages before her. It had been quite some time since she had last sat down to draw. She had been far too busy with the one-sided chess match that she had been playing on the grounds of Mystic Falls for the past few decades now, of course.

The chair opposite her, however, was empty.

She imagined that there were quite a few people who had thought themselves her opponent, thought themselves someone smart enough to go up against her. It did make things that much more amusing when she could watch as the realisation dawned on their faces that they hadn’t been the king or queen, but rather another one of Idonea’s pawns.

Elijah had been the first to play chess with her and had, in fact, been the one to teach her. It made her miss the company of her siblings that much more than she usually did, as they were more than capable of playing a good enough game against her, but it was still not enough to get her to hit the timer on her turn. Coffined as most of them might be, Idonea still knew the locations of each and every one of her siblings. She wouldn’t be a particularly good sister if she didn’t.

All it would take was a simple phone call to either her big brothers to be in either one of their company again.

However, there were still moves to be played before either Elijah or Niklaus sat down in the chair in front of her. She had spent far too much time planning said moves to allow loneliness to affect her mind. Too much could go wrong, after all, if either of her brothers messed with her carefully planned moves.

Her pencil curved around the paper to form the petals of a semi-opened peony, within which was a hidden, barely visible, runic uruz. It was one of three runes that had kept appearing in her drawings throughout the course of the night, the one that appeared the most. She had long since found it normal to finish a drawing and find hidden runes somewhere within.

Magic was a part of her, after all, a part of her family.

It was why she had eventually chosen Rune as her alias’ last name, in the end, as she couldn’t have gone down the route the rest of her family had with using a patronymic surname. Her mother had been a Viking, a völva, but Idonea would never use her name for anything and her father… well, using either name would have had her family quickly realised it was her.

Idonea had spent much of the night seated on the chaise lounge chair by the living room windows, sketching out tattoo designs as she waited for her newest granddaughter to awaken. The blonde had fallen asleep in the car, tiredness brought on by an overload of amplified emotions and a little nudge from the bergamot scented air freshener in Idonea’s car.

It was a natural tranquillizer, after all, and Idonea couldn’t let Caroline simply return to the house she lived in with her mother.

So, the doctor had tucked her into bed after carrying her in from the car, in the room she had designed with Caroline in mind some weeks ago now. Everyone in her family had their own rooms. Everyone in her trusted circle. There were bedrooms, hobby rooms, everything she had thought her family might want in order to call Villa Vittoriosa a home. It made it that much easier to ensnare people when everywhere they looked was something warm and welcoming, something that called out to them, something that eased them in.

At the sound of movement, Idonea paused before then turning her gaze momentarily to the ceiling, as she listened to the quiet footfalls of Caroline. She listened as the fledgeling slowly walked around the room she had woken in, her footsteps lingering at various positions around the room as Idonea imagined her pausing to stare at the belongings of the room. Her newest granddaughter liked pretty things, after all, and Idonea had spared no expense in buying furniture, clothes, and jewellery to fill the room.

Money was of no issue to the doctor.

She continued to sketch out her latest tattoo design as Caroline wandered around the house, lingering in the corridors of the upper floors as she examined the statues that were scattered throughout the house, the old and new paintings from artists renowned and unknown, relics that were from each corner of the world; swords, masks and even floral arrangements. All things that Idonea had seen over her many, many years wandering the Earth and had decided that she wanted.

“Doctor Rune?”

“Good morning, Caroline,” Idonea greeted, setting down her pencil down on the side table behind the lounge chair, as she turned her head towards Caroline who was stood lingering in the archway that led into the living room. The blonde had changed into the set of clothes that had been left on the end of the bed. “How did you sleep?”

“Uh, great. The bed was _really_ comfy,” Caroline smiled. “But what am I doing here? Last I remember was…”

Idonea smiled softly. “Those look excellent on you.” Caroline flushed, smiling slightly as she ran her fingers across the bottom of her top. “Sit with me, darlin’, and I will answer any questions you have for me as I imagine you have a lot concerning last night. Starting with your first one, however, you are here because you fell asleep in my car.”

After a moment of brief deliberation, Caroline sat down in one of the couches. Her head almost immediately turned to the large windows and a smile crossed her face as the sunlight fluttered across her face for the first time in days.

“Why isn’t it burning me now?”

“It is doubled-paned and tempered glass,” Idonea explained, deciding to temporarily forgo revealing the fact that alongside the windows, she had also spelled the entirety of the house to be protected in the case that the windows were broken. “UV rays are unable to penetrate and thus we are safe until we can get you a daylight amulet to wear.”

“What’s a daylight amulet?” Caroline asked, quietly.

“It is a piece of jewellery set with a lapis lazuli gemstone that has been enchanted by a witch. It allows vampires to walk freely in the sun.” The doctor then turned around slightly to grab an antique dip ink pen that had been a birthday gift from Elijah many years ago. She then held it in her palm before it then began to hover in mid-air. “I will make you one.”

Caroline gasped softly, her eyes widening as she watched the simple show of magic, something nothing more than a parlour trick. Her eyes were fixated on the pen as it began to spin around in a slow circle above the palm of Idonea’s hand. It then dropped and Idonea placed it back into its box sat on the end table.

“Of course, a daylight amulet can be removed and thus it is the reason behind why the rest of our family have taken to instead having gemstone dust tattooed into their skin.”

“Oh, that sounds…” Caroline hesitated and Idonea laughed softly because she hadn’t expected for Caroline to jump straight into the tattooed version of a daylight amulet that now all her children, and their children after them, wore branded into their skin so that their day walking abilities couldn’t be removed by normal means.

“Do not worry, darlin’, the choice is yours to make.”

Caroline blinked before she then nodded, briefly looking down at her lap before then looking back up towards Idonea. “Who are you? Really? I mean, I’ve grown up with you around but…” She shook her head. “How much is true? You just did _magic_ but last night… your eyes.”

“You are smarter than people give you credit,” Idonea smiled as she stared at her grandchild, one of the first few in Mystic Falls to reveal that there was more that Idonea was hiding. There had been few others who had managed to figure it out, mainly Sheila Bennet, but not even the witch had managed to figure out just how much she kept secret.

Although considering the witch’s current status as a member of the ghost patrol over on the other side, she imagined that she now knew a lot more about Idonea than she had ever managed to figure out while alive. Idonea would have to prevent her from making contact with her granddaughter, prevent her from revealing her tale to Bonnie. 

She had carefully fabricated her tale throughout her thousand years, after all, so much so that there were a rare few that knew who she truly was.

“How old do I look to you, Caroline?” she instead asked.

Caroline blinked. “Thirty-three?”

“As of August, I will be one thousand and twenty-seven.”

“No freaking way,” Caroline breathed, disbelief washing over her face as, as she had previously mentioned, she had _grown up_ with Idonea around. She had watched with her own eyes as her appearance changed, as it aged over the years, changing to fit her supposed age. In the eyes of Mystic Falls residents, Idonea had never once stopped ageing ever since she had arrived in nineteen ninety-five, at the tender age of eighteen, with her toddler daughter in tow.

It had been quite the scandal for many years, as Ylva had been four at the time, although it had also made it easier to get people in the palm of her hand as they rushed to help the young mother with whatever needs she had. It had also helped that she was a Rune, a founding family member.

“I was born a witch in the year nine hundred and eighty-three A.D,” Idonea explained calmly. “I was turned into a vampire in one thousand and one A.D.”

“Vampires are older than a thousand years old?” Caroline shook her head. “And here I thought Dracula was the first vampire.”

Idonea paused, her lips momentarily twisting upwards in amusement. The tale of Dracula was the most popular literary work derived from vampire legends, in turn becoming the basis for an entire genre of literature and films. It had been fun to design the weaknesses and strengths of vampires through it. There were sprinkles of truth in the tale, of course, facts that could be used against vampires, but for the most part, the strengths and weaknesses of Dracula were all fictional.

The fact that a vampire couldn’t enter a home without being invited in hadn’t been able to be hidden, much like their weakness to wood and their thirst for blood, so Idonea had allowed them to be included in the tale, as she had sat with a glass of blood in hand and watched as her grandson had spun his tale to Bram Stoker.

“No, as much as he might wish to be, Vlad was not the first vampire.”

“Wait,” Caroline said, her eyes widening. “Dracula is _real?”_

“Of course,” Idonea replied, confirming the existence of the most famous vampire in human history. Oh, how the rest of the supernatural community had almost come apart at the seams once the book had been published. It was always Gwendolyn’s children who caused the most mayhem, after all. “In fact, he is one of your cousins.”

Caroline opened her mouth and then closed it again before then bowing her head. Idonea said nothing in turn as she watched her struggle to find her words, as her mind raced through the information she had already been given. The blonde then looked up at Idonea through the cover of her eyelashes.

“So, it’s true then? What you said yesterday?” She licked her lips. “About us being—?”

“A family?” Idonea finished with a smile. “As I told you yesterday, darlin’, you have my blood coursing through your veins. You were not going to survive the night, so I had my son use his blood to save you.” She then shook her head, an expression of guilt and grief crossing her face. “Unfortunately, you then died with that blood in your system.”

Caroline bit into her lower lip, her eyes filling with tears as she clenched her hands together and stared down at her lap. Idonea allowed her to mourn her death for a few moments in silence as it would be important for Caroline to move past the death of her human life.

“Why didn’t you use your blood to save me?” Caroline then asked. “Instead of your son's?”

Idonea tilted her head to the side, humming under her breath as she pondered her answer. She then smiled softly as Caroline glanced up at her, as she saw the emotions brimming in her eyes. Regardless of whose blood had been used to save her, the fact remained that Idonea had saved _her_ , had chosen to save _her_. Throughout Caroline’s life, there had been only a few times that she had ever been chosen for something, where she hadn’t been passed over for someone else—for Elena Gilbert.

“I am one of the oldest vampires in existence,” she then raised a hand as Caroline opened her mouth to reply, silencing the blonde. “In fact, I am one of the first. My family and I were all turned in the year one thousand and one. All seven of us. My brothers, sister, and I. We are the originators of the vampire species.”

Her grandchild gasped, her face paling with shock and awe.

“You are vampire royalty, Caroline, and by having my son turn you instead of myself, you are that little bit more protected.” Idonea stood up from her seat and moved the few steps towards Caroline, before then crouching down and grabbing a hold of her clenched hands. “I promise you this, my darlin’, I will always protect you.”

Caroline flinched as she looked into the doctor’s teal and seafoam green eyes, eyes that swam with a furious protectivity for the fledgeling before her. A half-truth had fallen from her lips. Her reasoning behind having Rowan’s blood be used to turn Caroline had been the lie, however, it was true that she was more protected being a grandchild instead of a child because Idonea’s grandchild rarely strayed far from their sires' side, and Idonea’s children were the strongest non-original vampires around.

In the case of Caroline, she was the most protected out of everyone else in their family, simply because the side she remained by was Idonea’s. And the immortal hadn’t been lying when she said that she would protect the fledgeling. Caroline would, however, have to prove she deserved that protection.

Idonea raised a hand as she brushed a few strands of blonde hair from Caroline’s face.

“Caroline Forbes, you are strong and determined and bright and beautiful and sweet.” She then rested her hand on the side of Caroline’s face, her fingertips wiping away a tear as it slid down her cheek, as Caroline stared wide-eyed at the doctor. “And if willing, I can teach you to become so much more. Tonight, however, I will take you hunting.”

“Hunting? As in humans?”

“We are vampires, darlin’,” Idonea replied. “I will teach you how to control your hunger, but I can not do that if you never learn how to by drinking from the source.”

She refused to allow her granddaughter to become another Stefan Salvatore, another vampire incapable of drinking from the vein without flying off the handle and tearing heads from shoulders. If she wished to rip people’s heads off Idonea wouldn’t stand in her way, but regardless, she had to learn how to feed the _proper_ way.

Caroline swallowed hard as she remembered the feeling of hot, sweet blood falling onto her tongue. She had to force herself to keep her vampiric features down as she stared in wonder at the immortal who had saved her, who had promised to protect her, something no-one had ever said to her before.

She nodded. “Okay, I trust you, Doctor Rune.”

“You can call me Idonea,” Idonea smiled. “We are family, after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Dracula!_ I had to. I had no idea if I’m writing Caroline properly but then again, I do think human Caroline had been starved for proper love and attention. 
> 
> The idea of tattooing gemstone dust into the skin was something I got from _Critical Role_. From the last two chapters now, I’ve revealed that Idonea keeps her family protected from vervain and the sun through tattoos. Another thing would be compulsion from originals due to the vervained tattoos. Someone asked how Idonea protects her family and there it is.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas for the designs for Caroline’s tattoos, something that would fit her character?
> 
>  **Old Norse**  
>  Völva : wand-wed or staff-carrier


End file.
